KATHMANDU (AFP) — The wife and children of Nepal's former crown prince Paras have left the Himalayan nation to start a new life in Singapore, airport officials said Thursday.
Paras' family will join him in the city-state, where he has been for the past two weeks since leaving the new republic.
"Former princess Himani along with her three children boarded a Silk Air flight to Singapore this afternoon," airport security chief Dhak Bahadur Karki told AFP.
"They are accompanied by one of the royal relatives."
Often described as a hard-drinking playboy, the former prince is an unpopular figure due to his nightclub antics, fast driving and reckless living in one of the world's poorest countries.
He has being lying low in Singapore and has reportedly been hunting for a house and schools for his children.
Nepalese media are speculating over whether the 36-year-old will eventually return to his homeland.
His father, former king Gyanendra, was ousted from the throne in May when the 240-year-old monarchy was abolished to make way for a Maoist-dominated assembly.
Royal watcher Kishore Shrestha -- who edits weekly tabloid Jana Aastha, which often runs scoops on the former royals -- said the family had been unhappy since the monarchy was scrapped and the Maoists took power.
"They were feeling their every activity was being watched. At the same time the civil servants, domestic helpers and maids were all Maoists, even in their residence. They were disobeying orders."
Shrestha also said many believed the princess wanted to be near her husband to keep an eye on him.
"Her husband might be influenced by bad characters and activities if he is alone in Singapore," said the editor.
The former king, meanwhile, has been living in relative isolation in a royal lodge in a nature reserve on the outskirts of the capital Kathmandu, with few visitors apart from his former palace secretaries and his spiritual advisers.
"Sometimes he leaves once a week, sometimes once in 15 days," said Kanchha Shrestha, 62, who runs a small sweet stall opposite the guarded gates of the nature reserve.
"I haven't seen many people coming to visit except some former royal secretaries."
The ousted king, who left the nationalised Narayanhiti palace in the heart of Kathmandu a little over a month ago, has said he intends to stay in Nepal and live as a commoner.
An army security guard at the lodge said he was expected to move in the coming weeks into the city residence that Paras' family has vacated.
"Now that his residence, Nirmal Niwas, is going to be vacant, he is planning to shift there in the next two weeks," said the guard, who did not want to be identified.
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