Kathmandu: Former Kathmandu chief district officer (CDO) Chhabi Rajal’s arrest this week marked the fourth high-profile arrest over the crackdown against the 2025 Nepal protests that started with former prime minister K P Sharma Oli's detention.
The recent arrest signals an expanding investigation into accountability of the suppression of the Gen-Z protest that led to the killing of at least 76 people, mostly young protesters.
Rijal was arrested from his residence at Subidhanagar in Kathmandu, according to Nepal police. Before him, former police chief Chandra Kuber Khapung was arrested on March 28, along with Oli. The investigation panel charged Khapung with “negligent and careless conduct” and failing to stop hours of police firing, Reuters reported.
A day after Oli’s arrest, the former minister of energy, water resources and irrigation, Deepak Khadka, was arrested, primarily for money laundering and financial misconduct.
Former home minister Ramesh Lekhak was arrested alongside Oli late last week. Nepal's Supreme Court has refused to provide interim relief to Oli even as protests continued over his detention. Oli and Lekhak were sent to judicial custody for five days by the Kathmandu district court on March 29.
Led by former Supreme Court judge Gauri Bahadur Karki, a commission report found both Oli and Lekhak guilty of a brutal crackdown in September last year against the Gen Z protests, during which over 70 people were killed under Oli's prime ministership.
