Former PM Oli remanded in judicial custody for 5 days as protests continue across Nepal

Nepal's former Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli was remanded in judicial custody for five days by the Kathmandu District Court on Sunday (March 29, 2026), even as protests continue to erupt in various parts of the country over the arrests. Mr.

Oli and former Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak were arrested on Saturday (March 28, 2026) for their alleged involvement in suppressing the Gen Z movement of September 8 and 9 last year, in which 76 people, including around two dozen youths, were killed.

The arrests came a day after the newly formed Balendra Shah government decided to implement the report of the probe commission into the Gen Z protests in its first cabinet meeting. Mr.

Lekhak was presented before the district court seeking remand for ten days to carry out further investigation into their alleged involvement in the incidents of killings. He was also remanded in custody for five days.

However, ex-PM Oli virtually attended the district court session due to his deteriorating health conditions, according to Deepak Kumar Shrestha, information officer at the district court. Mr.

Oli is currently undergoing medical treatment at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, as his health conditions deteriorated when he was taken to the hospital on Saturday (March 28, 2026) for a health check-up following the arrest.

"He is a post renal transplant patient with hydronephrosis, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypothyroidism, atrial fibrillation with APC [on treatment] and cholelithiasis," reads a statement issued by the hospital.

He will remain in the hospital during the five-day custody. Workers of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Lennist) held a protest in Maitighar against the arrest of the party chair, Oli.