All news on the topic: Balendra Shah

Nepal’s Home Minister Sudhan Gurung resigned on Wednesday over alleged financial ties to a businessman under investigation for money laundering, marking an early setback for the country’s month-old government.

Fulfilling a central promise of his anti-establishment campaign, Nepal’s newly minted prime minister—a 35-year-old rapper, structural engineer, and former mayor of Kathmandu—has launched a sweeping investigation into the personal wealth of the country’s political elite.

On March 28, dozens of police officers moved in the predawn darkness through the streets of Gundu, a village east of Nepal’s capital, to raid the home of the country’s former prime minister, K.P. Sharma Oli.

Following an order from the Supreme Court of Nepal, authorities released on Thursday the country’s former prime minister and his home minister, ending a two-week detention on criminal negligence charges stemming from a deadly police crackdown on youth-led protests last year.

Nepal’s Supreme Court on Monday declined to release former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and former Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak following two separate petitions alleging their detention was illegal.

Hours after being sworn in as Nepal’s new prime minister on Friday, Balendra Shah, a 35-year-old rapper and structural engineer, announced that his government would pursue criminal charges against the country’s former leadership for their role in a deadly crackdown on youth-led anti-corruption protests last year.