Deuba waves to supporters outside the airport in Kathmandu.
Former Nepal prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, facing arrest for alleged corruption, returned home on Aug. 13, six months after leaving for medical treatment abroad.
The veteran leader of the opposition Nepali Congress party waved and smiled as hundreds of supporters lined up the streets leading to Tribhuvan airport in the capital, Kathmandu.
In April, police issued an arrest warrant for Deuba over money laundering charges, making him the latest high-profile figure targeted under the government of Balendra Shah.
Deuba, 80, who left Nepal in February, has denied the allegations.
Nepal police spokesman Abi Narayan Kafle said Deuba’s case is being handled by the Department of Money Laundering Investigation. “We are giving security for him at the airport and to his rally because he is a former prime minister,” he said.
Authorities had also issued a warrant for Deuba’s wife, former Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba.
The warrants were issued a month after Shah won a landslide victory on a platform of youth-driven political change in the first elections since deadly protests in September 2025.
Deuba’s tenure as president of the Nepali Congress ended in January, after younger members pushed for a leadership change.
