Durga Prasai arrested

KATHMANDU: Police have arrested medical entrepreneur Durga Prasai.

According to Acting Chief of the Kathmandu Valley Police Office, DIG Om Adhikari, Prasai was taken into custody from his residence in Bhaktapur around midnight on Monday.

He has been kept at the District Police Range, Kathmandu.

Prasai, who identifies himself as the coordinator of the Nation, Nationality, Religion and Culture Protection Campaign, had publicly announced that he would launch an intensified protest movement starting November 23. He was arrested while preparing for the planned agitation.

He is the main defendant in two previous cybercrime-related cases and the March 28 incident, which claimed two lives and injured 45 others. Prasai had been released on bail in all three cases.

The government recently indicated that legal action could be taken against Prasai and others for making what it described as anarchic or inflammatory public statements. A meeting of the Security Committee held at the Home Ministry on Sunday discussed measures to curb public remarks by various individuals that could escalate tensions.