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Former Crown Prince of Nepal Paras Shah Arrested in Phuket
PHUKET – Former crown of Prince of Nepal, Paras Shah was arrested in Thailand a month ago on charge of possessing illegal drug and is currently presenting himself before court after being granted bail, it is revealed.
Both the Nepal and Thai governments, however, have kept quiet on the case till now. Sources said Thai police had arrested Paras from his residence in the tourist town of Phuket with 3.4 grams of marijuana.
Police had taken him into custody despite his claim that the contraband did not belong to him. He had to spend that night in police detention.
He was released the following day after a Thai national deposited 10,000 baht (Thai currency) as bail. He has been presenting himself before court once every two weeks since then.
Sources also said police also confiscated his passport. If convicted, Paras can face one year in jail or has to pay 20,000 baht in fine or both.
Thai police had communicated to the Nepalese embassy in Bangkok about Shah’s arrest. The information was subsequently relayed to the home ministry and foreign ministry back home.
A highly placed source said former king Gyanendra Shah has already officially been informed about his son’s arrest. However, nobody from the ex-royal family seems to have shown any concern in the case.
Sources said while in Thailand, Paras lives mostly in Bangkok, where he has bought an apartment. He has also purchased an apartment in Phuket, which is an hour flight from the Thai capital.
Paras moved to Bangkok from Singapore as the ex-royal family had good relations with Thailand´s royal family. In the beginning, he had taken both his son and daughter to Bangkok and admitted them in school there.
However, his wife and former crown princess Himani brought the kids back to Kathmandu after he did not pay much attention to them. He had been out of touch with his family since he left for Bangkok.
The former crown prince was said to have been living with his Thai girl friend in Bangkok.
Paras Bir Bikram Shah Dev was the heir apparent to the throne of Nepal from 2001 until the monarchy was abolished by the Interim Constituent Assembly in 2008 following Constituent Assembly elections.
Past controversies of Paras Shah includes illegal possession of the pistol which he fired in the air at a Chitwan hotel on 11 December 2010 under the influence of alcohol. He reportedly opened fire at Rubel Chaudhary alleging that his family members had conspired to abolish Nepal’s monarchy and also attempted to defame Nepal and Nepalis during his confrontations with the prince.
He was arrested 3 days later for a court trial to be initiated on 19 December. However, before the trial began both parties changed their statements agreeing that there were neither any firearms present nor did any firing occur during or after their conversation while drinking
