KATHMANDU: Nepal’s new government Thursday virtually handed over a gift to ousted king Gyanendra, who turned 62 this week, by shelving the Maoist plan to begin a fresh investigation into the palace massacre that nine years ago enabled him to ascend the throne. When he was prime minister, Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda had said a high-level probe would be initiated into the June 2001 shootout in the Narayanhuty royal palace in which King Birendra and nine more royals perished. Though Birendra’s son Dipendra was held responsible by an inquiry commission, it was rejected by the nation that still considers the killing to be a complex conspiracy. In its policies and programme for the financial year 2009-10, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal’s government instead settled for a lesser investigation into the properties of the formal royals. “The property belonging to the former royal family, both within the country and abroad, will be investigated and utilized for national benefit,”