Pushparaj Shrestha, chief of the central command of the UML’s newly announced Youth Volunteer Force, has a number of criminal cases registered against him, according to police records.

The Nepal Police Criminal Record System shows seven cases filed against him between 2006 and 2018.

Police last arrested him on September 11, 2018, on charges of involvement in kidnapping and hostage-taking. Ram Bahadur Katuwal, originally from ward 5 of Kamalamai Municipality in Sindhuli and living in Ratopul, had filed a complaint saying Shrestha had threatened him. A team from the Valley Crime Investigation Office detained Shrestha following the complaint.

Police also investigated him for allegedly abducting Ganesh Kumar Kunwar on November 19, 2016 and extorting money. Investigators found that Kunwar had been held at a rented room and forced to issue cheques worth Rs1.1 million.

He served as Sindhuli district chair of the Young Communist League, the youth wing of the Maoist party. After the Maoists and UML formed the Nepal Communist Party, he remained with the UML.

According to police, he also faced attempted murder cases in 2006 and 2007 and 2008. In 2010, he was charged under the Public Offences Act for allegedly assaulting Rajan Ghising of Sindhuli. In 2013, he was arrested in another kidnapping and hostage-taking case.