Along with KP Sharma Oli, his former Home Minister, Ramesh Lekhak, was also arrested over the alleged involvement in last year’s deadly Gen Z protests.
New Delhi: Former Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has been arrested over his alleged involvement in last year’s deadly Gen Z protests – a day after Balendra Shah took oath as the new premier. Oli was taken into custody from his residence in Gundu, Bhaktapur, by the Nepal police.
Along with Oli, his former Home Minister, Ramesh Lekhak, was also arrested.
“They were arrested this morning, and the process will move forward according to the law,” Kathmandu Valley police spokesman Om Adhikari said as quoted by AFP.
Minutes after Oli’s arrest, the newly-appointed Minister of Home Affairs, Sudan Gurung, said a “promise is a promise” and that “no one is above the law”.
“We have taken former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and outgoing Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak under control. This is not revenge against anyone; it is just the beginning of justice. I believe that now the country will take a new direction,” he wrote in a post on X.
Oli, however, said that he has been arrested “vindictively”.
“I will fight the legal battle,” he told the media.
Over 70, including at least 19 young people, were killed in the anti-corruption youth uprising on September 8 and 9 last year, which began over a brief social media ban, but tapped into longstanding fury over economic hardship. The unrest spread nationwide the following day as parliament and government offices were set ablaze, resulting in the KP Oli government’s collapse.
Nepal’s first female chief justice, Sushila Karki, had then led the Nepal interim government for a brief period of time before Balen Shah was elected. She had come out of retirement to assume the interim leadership, and her tenure is widely viewed as a stabilising phase in Nepal’s fragile democratic journey.
Shortly after rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah won the recently held Nepal parliamentary elections, a panel was formed to investigate the violence during the anti-corruption protests. The first Cabinet meeting of the newly-formed government in Nepal, chaired by Balendra Shah on Friday, had decided to immediately implement the report of the high-level commission’s investigation – which had recommended a maximum of 10 years imprisonment for those responsible, including Oli and Lekhak, for negligence during the uprising, despite being in high positions.
The commission’s report said that it was “not established that there was an order to shoot”, but said that “no effort was made to stop or control the firing and, due to their negligent conduct, even minors lost their lives”.
The probe commission had also recommended actions against many other high officials, including then Inspector General of Nepal Police, Chandra Kuber Khapung.
