KATHMANDU: Nepal's palace on Saturday tried to stop witnesses going public with accounts of last week's royal massacre as officials said one royal family member could be reprimanded for his version of the slaughter.

Witnesses have said that Crown Prince Deependra killed the king and queen and seven other relatives in a drunken rage, before turning one of the weapons on himself, revelations that have deeply divided this tiny kingdom.

Officials said that they want witnesses to speak only to the investigators looking into the massacre to prevent a repeat of the riots that broke out as people struggled to come to terms with an official explanation the killings were an accident.

The widely circulated Kathmandu Post newspaper said that witnesses had been asked to "maintain silence" over the killings which claimed almost the entire royal family.

Mohan Pandey, press secretary to the new King Gyanendra, said that he could not confirm the newspaper report, but other officials linked to the investigation panel, now in its second day, have criticised public versions of the killings.

In particular, their ire is directed against witness Captain Rajiv Shahi, who is married to one of the daughters of the late King Birendra's youngest brother, who spoke at a hastily organised news conference on Thursday.

"It was the Crown Prince Deependra who murdered the King. Anybody who touches the King is no more what he used to be. He is just a murderer," Shahi had said.

Officials said that Shahi could be reprimanded by the army for going public rather than waiting to tell the investigation panel, which is expected to report on Sunday. The officials did not elaborate.

Shahi's startling version of events, which were being whispered in Kathmandu since the killings, has deeply divided the shocked nation, where the royal family has traditionally been revered.

Lila Mani Pokhrel, an opposition member of parliament and general secretary of the Leftist United People's Front told a mass gathering the government was trying to cover up information.

"I don't believe the Crown Prince is the murderer despite what various media has been saying. There is a conspiracy at work," he said.

A university professor, who declined to be identified, said it was hard to believe that Deependra had shot his family in cold blood.

"There is obviously something missing in the sequence of events. Why was his body cremated under curfew? What are they trying to hide?" he asked.

Ram Lal Awale, a businessman, said that the accounts made public by witnesses had worsened the already murky situation.

"I was at a point about to believe that Deependra was the one responsible, but now after these people have spoken I feel that it is not him. They are just trying to defame him after his death," Awale said.

But there were others who were coming to terms with the event as the nation prepared to end its official mourning period on Monday.

"Now there is no alternative for us but to bear the past, no matter how distressful it might be, and to look ahead," said Shailendra Khanal, a teacher.

"We must let the investigation committee find out the truth about the incident before making our own conclusions," the state-owned Rising Nepal quoted Khanal as saying. (Reuters)

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