Kathmandu, March 30: Nepal’s Supreme Court on Monday refused to provide interim relief to former Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, arrested over the 2025 Gen Z movement crackdown, even as protests continued in Nepal over his detention.
Oli and former home minister Ramesh Lekhak were arrested on Saturday for their alleged involvement in suppressing the Gen Z movement of September 8 and 9 last year, in which 76 people were killed.
In response to a habeas corpus petition filed by Oli’s wife, Radhika Shakya, claiming her husband’s detention is unlawful, a single bench of Justice Meghraj Pokharel refused to issue an interim order for Oli’s release.
The apex court instead asked the authorities to submit a written explanation clarifying the legal grounds for his detention.
The court gave a similar ruling to a habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of Lekhak.
The arrests came after the newly formed Balendra Shah government decided to implement the report of the probe commission into the Gen Z protests in its first cabinet meeting.
Hundreds of members of Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Lennist) and their sister organisations and student wings gathered at Naya Baneshwor area on Monday morning carrying placards that read “Immediately release KP Oli,” and “End the politics of revenge.” Monday’s protest rally was comparatively peaceful, unlike the protests organised by the party on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday, over a dozen UML cadres were injured as they clashed with the riot police.
Oli and Lekhak were sent to judicial custody for five days by the Kathmandu District Court on Sunday. Oli is currently undergoing medical treatment at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, as his health conditions deteriorated when he was taken to the hospital on Saturday for a health check-up following the arrest. He will remain in the hospital during his five-day custody.
In another development, Nepal’s Department of Money Laundering Investigation (DMLI) and Nepal police have intensified probe against former prime ministers Sher Bahadur Deuba, Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal after the arrest of a former minister Deepak Khadka.
Before upgrading the case to a detailed investigation, the department had conducted preliminary enquiries for nearly six months, The Kathmandu Post reported. The investigation was formally intensified after discrepancies were identified during that period, prompting authorities to widen the scope of scrutiny, the report said.
During the Gen Z protest last year, images and videos had surfaced showing burnt fragments of banknotes at the residences of Khadka, Deuba and Dahal. The findings were reportedly later confirmed through forensic laboratory tests. (PTI)
