Kathmandu, April 23 (PTI): Kanak Mani Dixit, a Nepali journalist who is considered to be pro-India, was today arrested by an anti-graft body here for allegedly embezzling funds by misusing his public post.

Dixit, who is also a rights activist and the Chairman of Sajha Yatayat, the public transportation bus system in Nepal which serves Kathmandu valley, was arrested from his Patan residence by a team of around 20 police personnel deployed by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).

The commission has been probing Dixit's property details over the suspicion of "amassing property disproportionate to his known source of income".

Dixit, 60, had been ignoring summons by the commission and was "on the run", the anti-graft body said.

"We have arrested the Sajha Yatayat chairman Dixit not the journalist to investigate his involvement in corruption," said the commission spokesperson, Krishna Hari Pushkar.

In a statement issued today, the watchdog said Dixit has been arrested on the basis of complaints received against him that he misused his public position to accumulate property illegally.

He was arrested after the property details submitted to the commission do not matchthe actual property registered in his and his family members' names.

Dixit, the publisher of Himal and Nepali Times magazines and who is considered pro-India and also writes for leading India media outlets, said he has been kept in custody at the commission central office in Kathmandu.