Suspended Indian army officer says ex-king Gyanendra wanted to establish
Hindu nation through violent means
In what appears to be a smear campaign, an Indian army officer suspended
after being arrested for his involvement in a bomb blast in a village in
Maharastra, India, has claimed that former Nepal king Gyanendra had
accepted his proposal to "establish a Hindu nation" by violence, pledging
to help his Hindu fundamentalist outfit by buying arms for them and
providing them with military training in Nepal.
In a transcript of a conversation included in the 4500-page charge-sheet
produced by the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), Indian army officer Lt
Col Srikanth Prasad Purohit is reported to have told his accomplices that
he had two meetings with king Gyanendra - first on June 24, 2006 and then
in 2007 - and that the latter had "accepted his proposal" for training "his people" as officers in Nepal every six months.
"The king had accepted 20 people from my side will train as officers there
(in Nepal) every six months ... I'll get 40 persons every year ... I'll
get 400 soldiers," Purohit is reported to have said in the conversation
included in the transcript which was distributed among the Indian media
last week.
Purohit also says that he asked the king to buy AK-47 rifles from
Czechoslovakia since "Nepal was a sovereign nation", and promised to pay
for the guns and ammunition.
"The king accepted ...," he allegedly says.
Following a 19-day long pro-democracy movement, king Gyanendra was forced
to reinstate the dissolved parliament and make way for the new civilian
government which immediately started clipping all his powers. By early
2007, the Maoist included seven party government had stripped off all
powers of king Gyanendra, which culminated in him relinquishing his throne
after the country was declared a republic.
Somewhere in the conversation he also allegedly says a senior Nepal Army
officer too was involved in the conspiracy to establish a Hindu nation by
violence.
In the conversation, Purohit also allegedly boasts of being in regular
contact with Queen Aishwarya, and claims that she also supported the idea
of a Hindu nation.
Queen Aishwarya and her family were killed in a bloody palace massacre in
2001. nepalnews.com Jan 29 09
