Nepal Appoints Manoj KC Police Chief, Moves Predecessor to Prime Minister’s Office

KATHMANDU, 5 November 2026 — Nepal's government has appointed Manoj Kumar KC as inspector general of police, replacing Dan Bahadur Karki, who has been reassigned to a newly created security-adviser position in Prime Minister Balendra Shah's office. The change took effect on 4 November following an unscheduled Cabinet meeting, according to the government's public explanation reported by several local newsrooms.

Government spokesperson and minister Sasmit Pokharel said the Cabinet established the adviser role at the rank of police inspector general to provide the prime minister with advice on security and public order. He said the move was a change of responsibility rather than disciplinary action against Karki. KC, previously an additional inspector general, was promoted under Rule 41 of the Police Regulations, 2014.

The appointment follows an unusual confrontation over the detention of journalists on 30 October. Police took three journalists from newsrooms for questioning and released them later that day. Police said the questioning followed concerns raised by the Prime Minister's Office about reporting on the police, but the prime minister's secretariat denied advance knowledge and said Shah ordered the journalists released. TFNOS documented those conflicting explanations in its earlier report.

The Cabinet decision is a new, independently reported institutional development. It does not establish who ordered the newsroom operation, whether Karki personally authorised it, or whether the police leadership change was a sanction for that incident. The government's stated position is that Karki was not disciplined. Separate accounts of friction between the prime minister's advisers and police leadership, including reporting by The Kathmandu Post on 5 November, remain allegations and attributed accounts rather than an official finding of unlawful interference.

The Kathmandu Post reported that Karki's removal followed disagreements involving an investigation of Inam Sapkota and reported contacts between him and people close to the government. Karki has denied an improper association with Sapkota, according to that reporting. The newspaper also quoted former officials questioning whether the government had adequate grounds to remove a serving police chief. These are disputed explanations for the decision, not adjudicated findings.

The replacement matters because it changes command of the national police during a live public debate about police independence and press freedom. Nepal News reported that the new inspector general's appointment was effective 4 November; OnlineKhabar independently quoted the government spokesperson explaining the legal mechanism and the reassignment.

Key next checks are the written Cabinet decision, any legal challenge by Karki, the new police chief's operational instructions, and any formal inquiry into the 30 October detentions. No court has ruled in the material reviewed that this particular reassignment was unlawful, and no confirmed government disciplinary finding against Karki was established.