Kathmandu, Aug 11: The government’s much-publicised plan to reopen the investigation into Nepal’s 25-year-old royal massacre has yet to get off the ground, with officials still divided over how the case should be handled.
Home Minister Sudan Gurung announced a fresh probe shortly after returning to office for a second term. But nearly two months later, the government has not decided whether Nepal Police should investigate the case or whether a new commission should be formed.
Gurung raised the issue with Nepal Police Inspector General Dan Bahadur Karki and other security officials on June 10, asking them to examine whether the police could take up the investigation. Police officials, however, advised the government to make a Cabinet-level decision.
The massacre had already been examined by a judicial commission headed by then Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya. The commission included the then Speaker, Taranath Ranabhat, and opposition leader Madhav Kumar Nepal.
A senior Home Ministry official said police officials were concerned that simply creating another committee would not resolve the case, particularly because an earlier commission had already submitted its report.
No fresh investigation has started, according to officials from the Central Investigation Bureau and the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office.
Police have also warned of serious evidentiary problems. Key records from the crime scene and postmortem reports are reportedly unavailable. Investigators also lack ballistic evidence that could establish which weapons and ammunition were used.
Officials say these gaps make a prosecution-oriented investigation particularly difficult. A police probe would need evidence strong enough to establish facts in court, but much of the material required to do so may no longer exist.
Former Nepal Police Superintendent Sher Bahadur Karki, who was involved in photographing the massacre scene in 2001, has also said that even the initial documentation of the crime scene was delayed.
Gurung has declined to reveal details about the government’s progress, saying sensitive information cannot be made public.
For now, the promised investigation remains trapped at the stage of deciding who should investigate it and whether enough evidence survives to make a new probe meaningful.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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