KATHMANDU: The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Friday arrested senior journalist and civil society leader Kanak Mani Dixit to probe into corruption charges against him.

The CIAA is investigating into the charges filed against Dixit, the Chairman of Sajha Yatayat.

The anti-corruption constitutional watchdog had deployed a police team to arrest Dixit from his private residence in Patandhoka of Lalitpur.

The police team had handed over a warrant to him, which had mentioned that the CIAA needed to probe into complaints filed against Dixit (60). The CIAA had received complaints that he amassed property illegally, according to the warrant.

Issuing a statement after the arrest, CIAA spokesperson Krishna Hari Pushkar said the arrest was carried out after Dixit did not obey the Commission's request to present himself at the Commission made via letters and telephones calls repeatedly.

"He has been taken to the Commission after the arrest as per the legal provision of Section 19(1C) of the CIAA Act, 1991 as he committed activities against the law and obstructed the investigation process," the statement read.

Pushkar said the Commission had been looking into complaints that claimed he amassed illegal property while abusing the public authority, and deposited sums at domestic and foreign banks in the name of self and other family members.

He is also accused of selling the organisational property as own inheritance and investing the income in other corporations.

Dixit, however, told media corps after the arrest that the arrest was made following an undemocratic decision of the Commission Chief Lokman Singh Karki. He accused Karki of ordering the arrest to settle personal disputes.

Dixit later told THT Online that he has been kept at the custody in CIAA central office in Tangal of Kathmandu.

Dixit, the publisher of Himal and Nepali Times magazines, is also an active human rights activist.

Earlier in December, the Commission had summoned Dixit to its office to inquire about sources of his income.

Dixit, however, had challenged the Commission's move at the Supreme Court.