Nepal's Home Minister Sudan Gurung resigned on Wednesday amid questions over his alleged financial ties to a businessman who is under investigation for money laundering, OCCRP reported.

Source: OCCRP

Gurung, 38, who took office on March 27, announced his departure on his social media accounts. "I have resigned from the position of Home Minister with effect from today," he posted, adding: "For me, morality is greater than a position, and there is no greater power than public trust. Public life should be clean, leadership should be accountable," Al Jazeera reported.

Source: Al Jazeera

According to OCCRP, the resignation followed reports about Gurung's shares in two micro-insurance companies linked to businessman Deepak Bhatta, and about discrepancies in his asset declaration — he had said his business investments were financed by a bank loan, but the liability was reportedly missing from the records submitted to the prime minister's office. Gurung said he was stepping aside to ensure an impartial investigation and dismissed the allegations as "sponsored rumors", OCCRP reported. The shareholding and asset claims remain allegations at this stage.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah will take charge of the Ministry of Home Affairs until a new appointment is made, his press adviser Dipa Dahal confirmed, according to Al Jazeera. Shah, 35, a rapper-turned-politician, became prime minister after his Rastriya Swatantra Party was swept into power in last month's parliamentary election on promises of controlling corruption and ensuring good governance and transparency.

Gurung, a former DJ who founded a non-governmental organisation after Nepal's 2015 earthquake, rose to prominence during last September's youth-led protests, OCCRP reported. He had come into the spotlight after he ordered the arrest of former prime minister KP Sharma Oli and Oli's home minister Ramesh Lekhak in connection with an investigation into their roles during the crackdown on those protests, Al Jazeera reported.