Balendra Shah,<\/a> and his cabinet were sworn into office. Shah, a former rapper turned politician known widely as Balen, won a landslide victory this month with a campaign that promised justice for the killings that took place during the gen Z uprising last year and to crack down on corruption.<\/p>\nThere were 19 protesters killed when police opened fire on youth-led protests that erupted in September last year, in response to a social media ban and rising frustration over corruption and nepotism in politics.<\/p>\n
The unrest spread nationwide the following day as parliament and government offices were set ablaze, killing dozens more and resulting in the government\u2019s collapse.<\/p>\n
In the aftermath, there has been growing pressure for Oli and his home affairs minister, who are alleged to have ordered the police crackdown, to be held responsible for the deaths.<\/p>\n
Newly appointed home affairs minister Sudan Gurung announced their arrests on social media. \u201cNo one is above the law. We have taken former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and former home minister Ramesh Lekhak under control,\u201d Gurung said. \u201cThis is not revenge against anyone, it is just the beginning of justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several trucks of police officers in riot gear conducted the arrests at the men\u2019s homes before taking them to the Kathmandu district police office.<\/p>\n
Oli, who is 74 and suffers from kidney issues, was reported to have been taken to a hospital after his arrest. His lawyer, Tikaram Bhattara, told Reuters that the arrest was not in compliance with legal standards. \u201cThey have said it is for investigation. It is illegal and improper because there is no risk of him fleeing or avoiding questioning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Their detention comes after a government-backed report into the deadly uprising was leaked. The investigation had recommended that Oli, Lekhak and the chief of police at the time of the protests face a punishment of 10 years in prison for their alleged role in the crackdown.<\/p>\n
The report said that it was \u201cnot established that there was an order to shoot\u201d, but alleged that \u201cno effort was made to stop or control the firing and, due to their negligent conduct, even minors lost their lives\u201d.<\/p>\n
Police spokesperson, Om Adhikari, confirmed the arrests were as a result of the report. \u201cWe have arrested them as per the recommendations made by the investigation commission,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Shah\u2019s election as prime minister, which saw him resoundingly defeat Nepal\u2019s veteran leaders, was seen as a triumph of the gen Z protests and a rejection of the old political establishment, which had become tarnished with allegations of corruption.<\/p>\n
The former rapper, who is a sharp dresser and rarely seen without his sunglasses, had released a new track on the eve of his inaugurations, in which he pledged to bring \u201cunity\u201d to Nepal.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart is full of courage, my red blood is boiling; my brothers stand with me, this time we will rise,\u201d rapped Shah, in a video that was viewed more than two million times in its first 24 hours. \u201cMay my breath not run out, I will run like a leopard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nepal\u2019s former prime minister KP Sharma Oli was arrested early on Saturday morning over his alleged role in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-570376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}