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people, though neither man has been charged, and both deny responsibility for the violence.

“The court has decided to permit five days extension,” Kathmandu District Court information officer Deepak Kumar Shrestha told AFP.

Shrestha noted that the court has also said the former prime minister should get the medical care he requires.

Oli appeared in court via video-link from a hospital yesterday, where he was admitted on Saturday following a procedural check-up.

Police said Oli has heart and kidney issues. AFP reporters saw him being taken to a hospital on Saturday after his arrest, surrounded by a heavy police guard.

The Supreme Court is due today to consider a petition for Oli and Lekhak’s release, court spokesman Arjun Prasad Koirala said.

The arrests of Oli and Lekhak came after an inquiry commission recommended that the four-time ex-prime minister and other officials be prosecuted for failing to stop security forces from firing on demonstrators.

The report says that statements given to the commission by Oli and Lekhak suggesting they did not know about the violence were part of a bid to shift responsibility and amounted to “criminal negligence”.

It recommends that they be investigated under a law that deals with death caused by recklessness.

Ex-energy minister Deepak Khadka was also detained yesterday “in a case relating to money laundering”, Central Investigation Bureau spokesman Shiva Kumar Shrestha said.

The unrest in early September began over a brief social media ban, but tapped into longstanding fury over economic hardship.

It spread nationwide the following day as parliament and government offices were set ablaze, resulting in the collapse of Oli’s government.

Oli’s CPN-UML Marxist party has called the arrests “a revengeful act” and has called for protests.