Kathmandu: Pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to initiate action against a wayward prince of Nepal's royal family, who is in the center of a fatal hit-and-run case in which renowned singer and musician Prabin Gurung was the victim.

Prince Paras Shah, the only son of King Birendra's brother, is alleged to be the driver of the vehicle that knocked down and killed Gurung two weeks ago and there have been mounting demands since then that the government took action against the prince.

The Nepal Communist Party Marxist-Leninist (ML) held a demonstration to protest the government's inaction against the prince, with party general secretary Bam Dev Gautam demanding: "King Birendra must use his exclusive power to strip Prince Paras Shah of his title of ‘Prince’. This is the demand of the people."

The students' union of the party said it would continue with the protest demonstrations against the prince for his alleged repeated violations of law. The union also plans to submit a memorandum to the prime minister, demanding action against the prince and a memorial service for Gurung. It has also threatened to picket the Narayanhity Royal Palace, the official residence of King Birendra.

Lawmakers of all the parties in the lower house of Parliament, political parties outside and people's pressure groups have also demanded action against the prince, but the government has not initiated any steps till now.

The lawmakers now allege that Prime Minister Koirala, who holds the Royal Palace Affairs portfolio, is too busy devising ways to remain in power and is not keen to antagonize the royalty.

A member of the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs told IANS that the government was "scared" to move against Paras because it wanted to be in the good books of the palace. "Since the palace is still seen as a power center in Nepal, Prime Minister Koirala, whose situation is getting worse in the government and inside the party (ruling Nepali Congress), wants to use this opportunity to show himself a loyal supporter of the palace by not doing anything against the prince."

Paras is a career "disco man," but newspaper reports have alleged that he has been involved in nine separate cases of violation of law since 1996 that involved the deaths of three common people.

Meanwhile, a junior army officer, 30-year-old Khadag Bahadur, has been named as the driver of the killer vehicle, which belonged to the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation, an organization headed by Prince Gyanendra, father of Paras.

Press reports said the police was looking for an informer, who leaked the news to the press implicating Paras in the case, saying it had been done to bring the royalty into controversy. The newspapers had given details of the incident, how the prince fled from the accident spot and later visited a police post close by and warned the personnel there against divulging details of the accident.

A senior police officer told IANS that many members of the royal family have not accepted that "absolute monarchy" is a thing of the past and that under the Constitution, only the King, the Queen and the heir to the Throne are immune from prosecution under law. "But the hallucination still remains among some members of the royal family that they are above the Constitution," he said on condition of anonymity.

--India Abroad News Service