Nepal's former energy minister and Nepali Congress leader, Deepak Khadka, was arrested by police in Kathmandu on Sunday morning. The arrest, carried out by a team from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Nepal Police, is part of an ongoing investigation into money laundering. According to local news portal Ratopati, the arrest warrant stated that Khadka was taken into custody for an investigation related to "money laundering offenses."
Khadka's arrest comes a day after former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and former Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak were arrested for their alleged involvement in the deadly crackdown on anti-corruption protesters in September. The newly appointed Home Affairs Minister Sudan Gurung announced on Facebook that Khadka was detained in connection with a probe into money allegedly recovered from his residence during the protests.
CIB spokesman Shiva Kumar Shrestha told the AFP news agency that Nepal's Department of Money Laundering Investigation will oversee the probe. The youth-led uprising that began in September 2025 started as a response to a brief social media ban but grew to encompass longstanding frustrations regarding corruption and economic hardship. More than 70 people died and some 2,300 were injured in the unrest.
Demonstrators set fire to the parliament building and government offices, eventually toppling Oli's administration. Khadka's residence was also set ablaze, and videos went viral showing protesters throwing cash found inside up into the air. An election held in Nepal earlier this month was the country's first poll since last September's protests, with the Rastriya Swatantra Party winning by a landslide and its leader, rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, formally taking office as prime minister on Friday.
On Saturday, the new government unveiled an ambitious 100-point agenda for governance reform, which includes a plan to establish an investigative committee to examine the assets of politicians and high-ranking state employees. These developments highlight ongoing anti-corruption efforts and political shifts in Nepal.
Source: www.dw.com