Nepal's ex-crown prince faces arrest over gunshot
KATHMANDU (AFP) – Nepal's former crown prince Paras Shah will be arrested and charged after he fired his gun during a late-night argument with fellow guests at an upmarket resort, the home ministry said Tuesday.Shah, who as crown prince was notorious for his heavy drinking and playboy lifestyle, fired a live round into the air late on Saturday after losing his temper at the resort in the Chitwan national park.
Shah, 38, said two men insulted him during a dispute about Nepal's monarchy, which was abolished in 2008 after former Maoist rebels who waged a 10-year insurgency against the state came to power.
One witness said the former prince had been drinking heavily, and home ministry spokesman Jay Mukunda Khanal said police have been ordered to arrest him.
"He will be charged with using a firearm in a public place," Khanal told AFP of Shah, who is now staying at a five-star hotel in the town of Pokhara in western Nepal.
Shah has said in a statement that he fired a single bullet into the air after the row "because I could not tolerate the insult upon me and my country".
But one of the guests involved in Saturday's altercation -- Rubel Chaudhary, the Bangladeshi son-in-law of Nepal's deputy prime minister -- accused the former prince of threatening to kill him.
"We were introduced, and initially he was very nice. But later he had quite a lot to drink," Chaudhary told AFP in Kathmandu.
"He said he wanted to take me into the jungle to see tigers, but I refused because it was already late at night. Then he started making threats. He said he was going to kill me, my wife and my children."
It is the first time an arrest warrant has ever been issued against a former royal, but the family has a chequered history.
Nine years ago, Nepal's crown prince Dipendra gunned down his relatives -- including the king and queen -- in a drink and drugs-fuelled rage before apparently turning his gun on himself.
Paras Shah was wounded in the attack, but many people in Nepal suspected him of involvement -- an allegation he has always denied.
He told an inquiry into the tragedy that he did all he could to stop the prince, and managed to save the lives of several children present by hiding them behind a sofa.
After the massacre Shah's father, Gyanendra, took over as king and four years later seized absolute power, sparking huge protests that eventually forced him to restore parliament.
As crown prince, Shah was widely unpopular in conservative, predominantly Hindu Nepal, one of the world's poorest countries.
Ten years ago, he was accused of killing a popular Nepalese musician in a suspected drunk-driving incident outside the royal palace.
Mass street demonstrations called for him to be punished, but no charges were ever brought against him and an army officer later claimed responsibility for the incident.
Shah moved to Singapore with his wife and young son and daughter in 2008 after the fall of the 240-year-old Hindu monarchy.
But he has since returned to Nepal, where his wife recently launched a fund to help deprived women and children in a move widely seen as an attempt to rehabilitate the family's public image.
