Police have taken into custody a prominent student leader and former general secretary of the Nepal Students Union (NSU), Gagan Thapa, early Tuesday.

According to Surendra Mishra, NC chairman of Kathamndu Metropolitan, Thapa including NSU leaders Sandesh Adhikari and Subodh Acharya were arrested from Lainchaur at 3 a.m. Adhikari is NSU president of Sarasowti Mulitple Campus while Acharya is former central member of the NSU.

The student leaders are kept at the Sorhakhutte ward Police Station.

NSU is the student wing of major opposition Nepali Congress party.

Thapa’s arrest comes a day after police took into custody president of NSU, Keshav Singh, while he was returning home after paying last rites to Sadhana Adhikari—a communist leader and wife of late permier Manmohan Adhikary– at the CPN (UML)’s party office at Balkhu.

On Monday afternoon, plainclothes policemen, with their faces hidden behind masks, raided the UML office and vandalized it while looking for pro-UML youth leaders, report said.

A popular student leader, Thapa was in the forefront of the ‘movement against regression’ launched by five opposition parties including NC. The Surya Bahadur Thapa-led government even took Thapa, then NSU president Gururaj Ghimire and pro-UML student leader Purushottam Acharya into custody some two years ago for their alleged anti-monarchy remarks and leveled them charges under ‘offense against state.’ The authorities, however, withdrew their charges later and set all three student leaders free amid intense opposition pressure.

Gagan Thapa was also actively involved in mobilizing student protest against the royal move of February 1. nepalnews.com by/pd apr 26