Nepal’s former energy minister Deepak Khadka was arrested on Sunday in connection with a money laundering investigation, AFP quoted the country’s police as saying.
The arrest came a day after former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and former home minister Ramesh Lekhak were arrested in a case related to the alleged suppression of youth-led protests in Nepal in September. Oli had resigned as the prime minister amid the protests on September 9.
On Friday, former Kathmandu mayor Balendra Shah was sworn in as prime minister.
On Sunday, Shiva Kumar Shrestha, a spokesperson for the country’s Central Investigation Bureau, told AFP that Khadka “was arrested this morning in a case relating to money laundering".
He added that the Department of Money Laundering Investigation will oversee the investigation.
Nepal’s home affairs minister Sudan Gurung said on social media that Khadka had been “detained today in connection with the investigation of the money recovered from his residence during the September 9 protest”. At least 72 persons were killed in these protests, while government and private properties worth billions were damaged.
The protests were sparked by the Nepali government’s ban on 26 social media platforms on September 4. Although the Oli government lifted the social media ban on September 8, the agitation had by then evolved into a broader protest against alleged corruption and misgovernance.
The demonstrations were described as a protest mainly by “Gen Z”, generally referring to persons born between the late 1990s and 2010.
On Oli and Lekhak’s arrest, the police earlier said that the two men were arrested following the recommendations of a commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Gauri Bahadur Karki, The Kathmandu Post reported.
The commission recommended that the former prime minister, former home minister and the then Inspector General of Police Chandra Kuber Khapung be charged with criminal negligence, which carries a jail sentence of up to ten years.
It alleged that the crackdown on the protests was the result of criminal negligence and recklessness, according to The Kathmandu Post. The commission accused the authorities of failing to act on intelligence about possible escalation, which led to several deaths.
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