and killed. Under torture, Ekdev confessed, and thus confirmed a widely circulated rumor, that he was directed by Bhimsen to poison not just Devendra, but King Girvan as well. There is a general consensus among historians that Bhimsen was not behind the poisoning. Bhimsen had nothing to gain by killing an infant less a year old, and the accusation was simply a ruse to answer foreign inquiries on Bhimsen's imprisonment. It was a general practice among the physicians of the time to check the strength of their medicine by first letting the mother taste it, before giving it to their newborn. It was later rumored that it was the Junior Queen who had actually contrived to kill the Senior Queen by poisoning the medicine intended for her newborn. While the poison did not express itself on the intended Queen, it managed to kill the infant prince, and the powerless Bhimsen was made a convenient scapegoat. Historian Gyanmani Nepal contends this to be closer to the truth. Historian William Wilson Hunter contended that "the whole charge was an invention trumped up by the Pandis to secure Bhim Sen's overthrow as they themselves confessed six years later". Hodgson on his reports to Governor General of India dated 18 September 1837 revealed that in fact King Rajendra knowingly held Bhimsen in the false charges because of his personal enmity. Dismissal from office and subsequent pardon Immediately after the incarceration of the Thapas, a new government with joint Mukhtiyars was formed with Ranganath Paudel as the head of civil administration, and Dalbhanjan Pande and Ranajang Pande as joint heads of military administration. This appointment established the Pandes as the dominant faction in the court, and they started to make preparations for war with the British in order to win back the lost territories of Kumaon and Garhwal. While such war posturing was nothing new, the din the Pandes created alarmed not just the Resident Hodgson but the opposing court factions as well, who saw their aggressive policy as detrimental to the survival of the country. After about three months in power, under pressure from the opposing factions, the King removed Ranjang as Mukhtiyar and Ranganath Paudel, who was favorably inclined towards the Thapas, was chosen as the sole Mukhtiyar. King Rajendra, due to the fear of a possible rebellion, restricted the Bhimsen established Singhanath battalion, to move out of the Kathmandu valley through a