Nepal court extends detention of ex-PM Oli in deadly protest probe

A Nepal court on Thursday extended the detention of former prime minister KP Sharma Oli and his exhome minister for a further two days as investigators probe their alleged roles in a deadly crackdown on protests last yearPolice arrested Oli 74 and former home minister Ramesh Lekhak on Saturday a day after Prime Minister Balendra Shah was sworn in following the first elections since the September uprising that toppled Olirsquos governmentAuthorities are investigating their alleged involvement in the crackdown on demonstrations in 2025 that killed at least 76 peopleNeither man has been formally charged and both deny responsibility for the violenceldquoThe court has granted two days extensionrdquo Kathmandu District Court information officer Deepak Kumar Shrestha told AFPThe court decision said investigators required more time as Olirsquos statement was still being recordedSupreme Court seeks explanation on arrest while his party calls it a ldquovengeful actrdquoThe order marks the second extension after the court initially granted police five daysrsquo detention on SundayOli remains hospitalised where he was admitted on Saturday for what police described as a procedural medical checkup adding that he suffers from heart and kidney problemsOn Monday Nepalrsquos Supreme Court ordered the government to explain Olirsquos arrest after his wife filed a petition claiming the detention was unlawful Police said on Thursday they had submitted their responseThe arrests of Oli and Lekhak came after an inquiry commission recommended prosecuting the fourtime exprime minister and other officials for failing to stop security forces from opening fire on demonstratorsThe commissionrsquos report said the statements given by the two men suggesting they did not know about the violence were part of a bid to shift responsibility and amounted to ldquocriminal negligencerdquoOlirsquos CPNUML Marxist party has described the arrests as ldquoa vengeful actrdquo and called for protestsRuling party leader Rabi Lamichhane rejects claimBut Rabi Lamichhane leader of the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party rejected that claimldquoThe first right to receive justice belongs to the mother of the martyr this cannot be called revengerdquo Lamichhane said Thursday as he addressed the opening session of parliamentThe unrest in early September began over a brief social media ban but tapped into longstanding fury over economic hardship It spread nationwide the following day as parliament and government offices were set ablaze resulting in the collapse of Olirsquos governmentShah a 35yearold rapperturnedpolitician led the Rastriya Swatantra Party to a sweeping election victory on a platform of youthdriven political change and defeated Oli in his own constituencyWith AFP inputs