Deuba returns to Nepal after nearly five months abroad

Former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba returned to Nepal on Thursday after spending nearly five months abroad, arriving in Kathmandu via Hong Kong.

Deuba landed at Tribhuvan International Airport at around 12:30 pm and is expected to return directly to his rented residence in Maharajgunj. His personal secretary, Bhanu Deuba, said he would stay at the same residence he had rented before leaving the country.

Deuba left Nepal for Singapore on February 25, saying he was travelling there for a medical check-up. He has since spent nearly five months outside the country, but his prolonged stay and the circumstances surrounding his treatment remain shrouded in uncertainty.

Deuba flew directly from Kathmandu to Singapore, while his wife, former foreign minister Arzu Rana Deuba, travelled to Singapore via New Delhi.

It remains unclear when Deuba, Rana and their son, Jaybir, left Singapore for Hong Kong. Deuba then travelled on to Nepal, while the whereabouts of Rana and Jaybir remain unclear.

The family has said they were abroad for medical treatment, but has not publicly disclosed where they received treatment or what health problems they were being treated for.

Questions also remain over the cost of their nearly five-month stay abroad and who paid the medical and other expenses.