South Asian News Network

In the first week of assuming the responsibility of the Home Ministry, Home Minister Sudhan Gurung has intensified high-level action. Seven high-ranking individuals have been arrested within a week, presenting a new image in the security and law enforcement sectors. The day after his appointment as Home Minister, on Saturday, former Prime Minister and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli and former Home Minister and Congress leader Ramesh Lekhak were arrested. They were being investigated in murder cases related to the Genji movement of 23 and 24 Bhadra. They were arrested during the implementation of the commission’s report.

On the same day, CPN-UML’s Karna Bahadur Malla was arrested on charges of rape. Malla, a 52-year-old man from Soru Rural Municipality-10 of Mugu, is currently living in Chandragiri Municipality-7, Kathmandu. The victim woman had filed a complaint on Falgun 5. On Chaitra 5, Congress leader and former Energy Minister Deepak Khadka was arrested. The CIB has taken steps to investigate the amount recovered from his residence. The investigation is also underway into the burnt notes and public videos of Khadka’s house being vandalized and set on fire during the Genji movement.

That same night, Lumbini Province MP Rekha Sharma was arrested on charges of child labor exploitation. In the incident of keeping a girl at home and beating her, the Metropolitan City task force rescued the girl and placed her in a shelter home. On 17 Chaitra, the then Kathmandu CDO Chhabilal Rijal, who was associated with the Genji movement, was arrested. He had ordered the use of rubber bullets in the movement, but he has been released on bail from the government attorney’s office.

Finally, on 19 Chaitra, businessman Deepak Bhatt was arrested under a money laundering investigation. While the CIB arrested him, the Immigration Department has frozen his passport. The Ministry of Home Affairs, led by Sudhan Gurung, has issued new guidelines to maintain law and order through the activism shown in the first week and the actions of high-ranking officials.