KATHMANDU: Police in Nepal arrested a former finance minister in a money-laundering case, officers said on Tuesday (June 23), the latest case involving a senior ex-official since 2025 anti-corruption protests toppled the government.
Bishnu Paudel, who was arrested on Monday, is also a vice-chair of the Communist CPN-UML party of former prime minster KP Sharma Oli, whose government was brought down in the September uprising.
"The department will investigate his involvement in money laundering," Nepal Police spokesman Abhi Narayan Kafle told AFP.
Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah, a rapper-turned-politician, was elected in March vowing to crack down on graft.
Oli, who lost his parliamentary seat to Shah, called Paudel's arrest a "political stunt" and accused Shah's government of authoritarian behaviour.
CPN-UML publicity head Niraj Acharya said: "We will follow the rule of law and our leaders are ready for any kind of test."
"But this government has shown a discriminatory behaviour. We will fight against it."
Oli and his former interior minister Ramesh Lekhak were arrested in March -- a day after Shah took office -- and questioned for their alleged role in the deadly 2025 crackdown on protesters.
They were released after nearly a fortnight. Neither man was charged and both deny responsibility for the violence.
The 2025 protests began as demonstrations against a brief social media ban but were fuelled by broader public anger over corruption and the struggling economy.
At least 76 people were killed and more than 2,500 wounded during two days of violence.
In a separate case, Nepal's anti-graft watchdog filed charges against 16 people, including the passport department chief, for an alleged $66 million procurement scam.
Suresh Neupane, spokesman for the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, said the case was "regarding embezzlement in e-passport procurement". - AFP
