- After Oli’s arrest, his followers organized protest rallies.
- Oli had resigned after the fatal protests last September.
- Police say Oli and Lekhak will appear in court on Sunday.
KATHMANDU: Former Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli was arrested on Saturday as police investigate whether he was negligent in failing to prevent dozens of deaths in the crackdown on anti-corruption protests led by Generation Z last September, officials said.
Oli’s arrest, which his lawyer said was illegal and sparked protests by his supporters who clashed with police, followed the swearing-in of rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah as prime minister on Friday and a recommendation by a panel investigating violence during the protests that he should be prosecuted for negligence.
His former home minister, Ramesh Lekhak, was also arrested.
76 people died last September during a police crackdown, arson and violent riots during protests, which led to Oli’s resignation.
After his arrest on Saturday, his supporters staged protest rallies and clashed with police, who tried to stop them from burning tires near the prime minister’s office. Police fired tear gas and used batons to break up protests, injuring one person, witnesses said.
Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) called his arrest illegal and said it was an act of “revenge.” He demanded his immediate release and said more protests were planned for Sunday.
Shankar Pokhrel, a senior party official, told reporters that protest notes against the arrest in all 77 districts of the country would be handed over to the government on Sunday.
Interior Minister Sudan Gurung dismissed the criticism, saying on Facebook: “It is the beginning of justice. The country will now take a new direction.”
Electoral defeat
Oli was prime minister four times between 2015 and 2025, but never served a full five-year term. In 2020, he published a new political map that included a small tract of disputed land controlled by India, giving him a popularity boost in Nepal.
His popularity did not last and he was defeated by Shah in his home constituency in an election this month, his second defeat since the restoration of multi-party democracy in 1990. Anger over the deaths in the September protests helped Shah’s Rastriya Swatantra Party win the election by a landslide.
The panel that investigated last September’s violence held Oli and Lekhak responsible for failing to take any action to stop hours of police shooting at protesters.
Police spokesperson Om Adhikari said Oli and Lekhak would appear in court on Sunday.
Oli, 74, who has undergone two kidney transplants, has been taken to a hospital from the police station to which he was first taken, witnesses said.
His lawyer, Tikaram Bhattarai, told Reuters the arrest was unjustified and would be challenged in the Supreme Court.
“They have said that (the arrest) is for investigation. It is illegal and improper because there is no risk of him escaping or avoiding being interrogated,” he said.
Lekhak and his attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
