Kathmandu: Nepal’s former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and ex-home minister Ramesh Lekhak were arrested on Saturday.
They were arrested over their alleged involvement in a deadly crackdown on protestors last year, according to reports.
A panel, which investigated violence during the anti-corruption protests, had earlier this week recommended that 74 years old Oli be prosecuted. He is facing charges for failing to prevent the crackdown on the protests
Their arrest was confirmed by Kathmandu police spokesman Om Adhikari.
The arrests come a day after Prime Minister Balendra Shah and his cabinet were sworn in. The 2025 uprising had toppled Oli’s government.
According to reports, the new home minister Sudan Gurung wrote on social media after Oli’s arrest that ‘no one is above the law’.
“No one is above the law… This is not revenge against anyone, just the beginning of justice. I believe, now the country will take a new direction,” he posted.
Min Bahadur Shahi, a senior leader of Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), told news agencies that the former PM was arrested from his residence.
At least 77 people had died in the anti-corruption youth uprising last year. It had started over a brief social media ban. It was termed as the GenZ protests.
