Durga Prasai, 54, a controversial medical college operator believed to be the mastermind of the March 28 pro-monarchy protest in Tinkune, has been remanded to police custody for 12 days following a court order on Friday.

Prasai, who led the violent protest, was arrested in India and brought to Nepal via the Kakarbhitta border. He was then flown to Kathmandu from Bhadrapur.

Police said he had fled following the March 28 incident and was traced by the Special Bureau with the help of three teams deployed to India. However, Prasai’s aides claimed he had voluntarily surrendered to India’s Assam Police. Nepal Police later issued a statement saying he was detained from Bhadrapur, Jhapa.

Prasai was appointed ‘people's commander’ by the ‘Joint Jana Andolan Committee’ led by Nawaraj Subedi, to spearhead the March 28 protest demanding the restoration of Hindu state and monarchy.

The committee is a loose alliance of pro-Hindu and pro-monarchy parties, groups and organisations.

After the death of one video journalist and a youth in the course of the March 28 protest, the government has placed long-time royalist Subdei under house arrest. In Subedi’s absence, Jagman Gurung is leading the committee.

Ahead of their press conference on March 27, both Subedi and Prasai had met former king Gyanendra Shah at the latter’s residence in Nirmal Niwas. After meeting Shah, Prasai and Subedi organised a press conference and announced the protest for the following day.

Several pro-monarchy and pro-Hindu groups had supported the March 28 protest, which turned violent. Two senior leaders of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Rabindra Mishra and Dhawal Shamsher Rana, among others, were arrested and remain in police custody.

The Rastriya Prajatantra Party claims to be the main political force advocating for the restoration of Nepal’s Hindu identity and monarchy, both inside Parliament and on the streets.

According to police sources, Prasai was tracked down in Assam, India on Thursday by a team of Nepal Police’s special cell and brought to Jhapa on Friday.

As Nepal and India do not have a formal extradition treaty, the two countries have been extraditing suspects on the basis of mutual understanding.

“With the support of Indian police, we were able to locate and bring him back,” said a senior police officer, adding that two different police teams were dispatched to various northern cities to track Prasai down.

Police said their preliminary investigation suggested that Prasai visited different Indian cities and met some pro-Hindu leaders seeking support for the movement in Nepal. And after failing to secure the desired backing, he travelled to Assam and decided to surrender.

The police have also arrested several individuals close to Prasai, including his brother Rakesh. The Subedi-led committee claimed that Prasai had surrendered to Indian police on Thursday out of fear for his life.

“In order to reach Nepal, Prasai has surrendered to the Indian police,” said a statement issued by Swagat Nepal, spokesperson of the committee. “Since his [Prasai’s] life is in danger and there is also a possibility that the state could ‘disappear’ him, he has surrendered to the Indian police so that they can take him safely to Nepal.”

But Nepal Police rejected the claim that he had surrendered to Indian police as some media outlets suggested.

“On the basis of past practices between Nepal and India, we brought Prasai from Assam where he has been hiding at a residence of a Nepali-speaking family,” a senior Nepal Police official who is familiar with the operation, said. “We also found that after fleeing on March 28, he had travelled to Uttar Pradesh, New Delhi, and Rajasthan.”

The police are preparing to register cases against him for sedition, organised crime, attempted murder, criminal mischief, vandalism of public and private property, as well as arson.

“We are collecting evidence for those charges,” another senior Nepal Police official said.

On Friday, district attorneys preparing the case against Prasai stated that charges such as sedition and organised crime will apply to him, and that more charges could be added as investigations progress.

Prasai has been leading “Rastra, Rastriyata, Dharma, Sanskriti and Nagarik Bachau Mahaabhiyan,” a campaign dedicated to revive the Hindu state and monarchy in Nepal. He frequently lashed out at mainstream political parties, some members of the business community, and the current secular federal republican system.

After his formal arrest in Jhapa, he was brought to Kathmandu by a regular flight and later produced before the Kathmandu District Court. A single bench of judge Shishirraj Dhakal approved a 12-day remand following a request by police, said court information officer Deepak Kumar Shrestha. Prasai’s bodyguard, Deepak Khadka, who was arrested with him, has also been remanded for the same duration.

As Prasai is a cancer patient, the court has directed the police to arrange for his medical treatment as per a doctor’s recommendation.

In its initial affidavits, police charged Prasai with multiple offences.

According to a statement issued by Superintendent of Nepal Police Apil Raj Bohora, Prasai on March 28 incited his supporters and crowds to break through the restricted area around the federal parliament building by pelting stones at security personnel, and attacked them with a vehicle he drove his vehicle into police officers with the intent to kill.

“They also attacked security personnel who were on duty on the streets for the safety of the general public with boots, sticks, iron rods, and homemade weapons; seized their weapons; injured officers; and vandalised and set fire to private homes, buildings housing communication centers, offices of various political parties and private residences of leaders, hospitals, police offices, business centers including highly sensitive and highly flammable fuel storage site of the Nepal Oil Corporation at Civil Aviation Authority office, and the outer compound of the Tribhuvan International Airport. They illegally entered these sites and stole cash.”

Prasai has a controversial past and has been arrested twice before on different charges.

During the protest, Prasai breached a police barricade and incited his supporters, who went on to vandalise, loot, and torch at least 40 public and private buildings, including media offices and commercial establishments. Sixty-nine vehicles were damaged in the violence.

Two people died during the protest—video journalist Suresh Rajak was found burnt to death inside a building that was earlier set on fire by protesters, and Kirtipur resident Sabin Maharjan was killed in police firing—while 129 others were injured. Five are still in various hospitals.