Nepal's Crown Prince Dipendra massacred almost his entire family, including his parents, the king and queen, in a drunken rage, an official investigating panel said yesterday.
In a report issued yesterday it said it was certain Dipendra carried out the shootings on June 1st, and that he fatally shot himself afterwards.
"A drunken crown prince indiscriminately fired, killing the royals," Mr Taranath Ranab hatt, Speaker of the Lower House and one of the two-member commission, told a news conference broadcast live on Nepali state TV and radio. He shot his father, King Birendra, and eight other members of the royal family.
Until now the official explanation for the killings had been an accident, but few of the 22 million people in the Himalayan mountain kingdom had not already heard through the grapevine that Dipendra was guilty of the crime.
Riots followed the new King Gyanendra's coronation as confused and angry Nepalis grieved for leading members of their royal family but officials said that things had since calmed down.
"The situation is not serious," one said. "The concerned ministry will look after security measures if necessary."
The Nepali-language newspaper Rajdhani, citing unnamed commission sources, said that the investigating panel had questioned more than 150 people - including survivors and ballistics experts - and that more than 99 per cent had "pointedly said" that Dipendra was responsible.
As an anxious population waited for news of the report, traditionalists bade an ancient Hindu farewell to Dipendra that they hope will banish the ill fortune that has struck the palace.
Dipendra, as crown prince, was named king as he lay dying in a coma from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
As a monarch who died tragically, traditional Hindus believe he too had to have a katto ceremony performed on his behalf - as did his murdered father on Monday.
A Brahman priest yesterday deliberately defiled himself to assume Dipendra's woes. The priest, a vegetarian all his life, ate a meal laced with animal marrow before dressing as Dipendra and crossing the Bagmati river on elephant back.
At first, the elephant appeared reluctant to go. As Nepali dignitaries slapped its buttocks to send the bad luck on its way, the elephant turned tail and chased them up a narrow path.
Once brought under control by the mahouts, it lumbered across the river - this time to a fusillade of stones and rotting fruit thrown by the now vengeful onlookers.
The priest will be banished for the rest of his life, supported in exile by gifts and money donated by wellwishers anxious to rid the capital of the bad luck that has plunged the nation into crisis.