Former prime minister KP Sharma Oli and ex-home minister Ramesh Lekhak were arrested over their alleged involvement in a deadly crackdown on protesters in September, police said.
The detentions came a day after Prime Minister Balendra Shah and his Cabinet were sworn in after the first elections since the 2025 uprising that toppled 74-year-old Oli’s government.
“They were arrested this morning and the process will move forward according to the law,” Kathmandu Valley police spokesman Om Adhikari said yesterday.
An inquiry commission into the violence found that at least 76 people were killed in the anti-corruption youth uprising on Sept 8 and Sept 9.
At least 19 young people were killed in the crackdown on the first day of protests, which began over a brief social media ban but tapped into long-standing fury over economic hardship.
The unrest spread nationwide the following day as parliament and government offices were set ablaze, resulting in the collapse of Oli’s government.
The government-backed inquiry commission recommended during a caretaker administration that Oli and other officials be prosecuted.
Its report said it was “not established that there was an order to shoot”, but added that “no effort was made to stop or control the firing and, due to their negligent conduct, even minors lost their lives”.
Oli was arrested by police in the capital early yesterday.
“They (the officials) have been arrested for investigation on the protests of Sept 8 and Sept 9,” Kathmandu district police spokesman Pawan Kumar Bhattarai said.
Nepali news site Onlinekhabar.com yesterday said Oli had denied any role in the violence.
AFP reporters later saw him walk into hospital, dressed in white and surrounded by a heavy police guard.
“He has been admitted at the hospital on doctor’s advice,” Bhattarai said. “They will oversee his treatment. He has issues with his heart and kidney.”
Oli’s CPN-UML Marxist party called for supporters to stage a “nationwide protest”.
“This is a revengeful act, may the government immediately take this decision back,” said senior party leader Mahesh Basnet.
Shah, a 35-year-old rapper-turned-politician, and his Rastriya Swatantra Party won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections this month on a platform of youth-driven political change.
He challenged and defeated Oli in the four-time ex-prime minister’s own constituency.
Shah’s first Cabinet meeting on Friday decided to implement the recommendations made by the investigation commission.
The commission’s report said victims in 48 out of 63 completed autopsies died of bullet wounds, and that most were struck in the chest or head.
More than 200 people were questioned, including Oli, and a 900-page report with an additional 8,000 pages of evidence was submitted.
“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,” new Home Minister Sudan Gurung, a key figure in the protests, posted on Instagram. — AFP
