Former Kathmandu chief district officer (CDO) Chhabi Rajal’s arrest on Tuesday marks the fourth high-profile arrest over the crackdown against the 2025 Nepal protests that started with ousted former prime minister K.P. Sharma Oli being detained on Saturday.
The latest arrest signals an expanding investigation into accountability of the suppression of the movement that rocked the country and led to the killing of at least 76 people, mostly young protesters.
Here are the major arrests since Saturday.
Former Kathmandu chief district officer (CDO) Chhabi Rajal
Rijal was arrested from his residence at Subidhanagar in Kathmandu, according to Nepal police. The latest arrest came after three consecutive days of pro-Oli protests. 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."
Former police chief Chandra Kuber Khapung
Khapung was arrested on March 28, along with Oli. He had been made the 32nd police chief in September 2025, just days before the protests began. The investigation panel charged him with “negligent and careless conduct” and failing to stop hours of police firing, Reuters reported.
Ex-minister Deepak Khadka
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. The arrest was a part of a wider crackdown in the fallout of the September 2025 protests. Local media reported that fragments of burnt cash were found at Khadka’s residence during the unrest, giving way to scrutiny over financial irregularities.
Former home minister Ramesh Lekhak
Lekhak was arrested alongside Oli on Saturday. Local media reported in December 2025 that after the unrest he had submitted a written response to a high-level enquiry commission probing the protests. Lekhak had said that he had instructed security forces to use restraint and that the actual use of force was under operational command.
On Monday, Nepal's Supreme Court refused to provide interim relief to Oli even as protests continued over his detention.
In response to a habeas corpus petition filed by Oli's wife, Radhika Shakya, claiming her husband's detention was unlawful, a single-judge bench of Justice Meghraj Pokharel refused to issue an interim order for Oli's release.
Oli and Lekhak were sent to judicial custody for five days by the Kathmandu district court on Sunday.
The arrests came after the newly formed Balendra Shah government decided to implement the report of the probe commission in its first cabinet meeting.