The Nepali Congress, which was opposing Gyanendra's army-backed coup and grabbing of absolute power, expelled Pokhrel.

The former minister also claims there are witnesses who can bear out that Birendra's son Dipendra, who was blamed for the massacre, was innocent.

'As he lay dying after being shot, Nirajan, Dipendra's younger brother, called up a close friend of mine,' Pokhrel said. 'The dying prince said: There is trouble afoot in the palace. A lot of people are shooting at us. But I don't know who they are.

'Would the prince have said that had it been his own brother Dipendra who was pulling the trigger?'

Pokhrel also claimed that she knew Dipendra very well and could vouchsafe that he was incapable of the massacre, even under the influence of alcohol.

The former minister is asking why Koirala did not resign after the killings since he was morally bound to do so after having failed to protect the king both as head of the government and of security agencies.

In the past, Pokhrel, who has a chequered history herself, had written a book, 'Shadow over Shangri-la', about her experiences as a political prisoner in the 1980s.

At that time, she did not name many of the people mentioned in her book. But now, she is toying with the idea of rectifying the omissions -- either in a new book or in a revised version of her old memoir.