The royal palace has denied media allegations that arms were purchased during the official visit of Prince Paras to the Republic of Austria in March.

A press statement issued by the royal palace's press secretariat said that Prince Paras visited Austria at the invitation of Wolfgang Schuessel, Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria and the objective was to hand over a pair of rhinos as gifts from Nepal to Austria.

Earlier, media reports quoted Maoist Chairman Prachanda as saying that arms were purchased from Israel during Prince Paras' visit to Austria in March.

Meanwhile, Home Ministry also rejected recent media allegations that a Kathmandu-bound Ukrainian plane carrying Israeli arms was grounded in India recently. The government said that the Nepali mission in New Delhi has made it clear that no aircraft carrying weapons for Nepal landed in the Indian city of Ahmedabad as reported in the media.