Nepal’s ex-prime minister arrested over alleged role in protest crackdown

KATHMANDU – Nepal’s former prime minister K.P. Sharma Oli and former home minister Ramesh Lekhak were arrested on March 28 over their alleged involvement in a deadly crackdown on protesters in September, the police said.

The detentions came a day after Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah and his Cabinet were sworn in after the first election since the 2025 uprising that toppled Mr Oli’s government.

“They were arrested this morning and the process will move forward according to the law,” Kathmandu Valley police spokesman Om Adhikari told AFP.

An inquiry commission into the violence found that at least 76 people were killed in the anti-corruption youth uprising on Sept 8 and 9.

At least 19 young people were killed in a crackdown on the first day of protests, 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 collapse of Mr Oli’s government.

The government-backed inquiry commission recommended during a caretaker administration that Mr Oli, 74, 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”.

Mr Oli has denied ordering security forces to open fire on protesters.

He told AFP during his failed bid for re-election in the March 5 poll that he blamed “infiltrators” for the violence.

Mr Oli was arrested by the police in the capital Kathmandu in the early hours of March 28.

“They have been arrested for investigations over the protests of Sept 8 and 9,” Kathmandu district police spokesman Pawan Kumar Bhattarai said.

AFP reporters later saw him walk into a hospital, dressed in white and under heavy police guard.

“He has been admitted (into) hospital on doctor’s advice,” said the Kathmandu district police spokesman.

“They will oversee his treatment. He has issues with his heart and kidney.”

Mr Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) called for supporters to stage a “nationwide protest”.

“This is a revengeful act, may the government immediately take this decision back,” senior party leader Mahesh Basnet told reporters.

‘Beginning of justice’

Mr Shah, a 35-year-old rapper-turned-politician, and his Rastriya Swatantra Party won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in March on a platform of youth-driven political change.

He challenged and defeated Marxist leader Oli in the four-time prime minister’s own constituency.

It was decided during Mr Shah’s first Cabinet meeting on March 28 that the recommendations made by the investigation commission would be implemented.

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 Mr 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, said in a post on Instagram.

Nepali news site Onlinekhabar.com said on March 28 that Mr Oli had denied any role in the violence.

The site reported Mr Oli telling his lawyers that “this arrest is vindictive, I will fight a legal battle for it, prepare yourselves”.

Mr Oli’s political career stretches nearly six decades, a period that saw a decade-long civil war and the 2008 abolition of Nepal’s monarchy.

As prime minister, he became a lightning rod for protester fury.

He resigned on Sept 9 as mobs torched his house, and Parliament and government offices.

He said in his resignation letter he hoped stepping down would help “move towards a political solution and the resolution of the problems”. AFP