Himalmedia co-publisher and well known civil rights activist Kanak Mani Dixit was detained today in Kathmandu on the direct orders of the Chairman of the Commission to Investigate the Abuse of Authority (CIAA). The Federation of Nepalese Journalists said in a statement that he was detained on Friday just before the courts closed to prevent being freed on bail and has been kept in a common jail cell. He had been critical in his regular columns about the appointment of the current chairman to head the CIAA three years ago. In November the Authority had announced that he was ‘under investigation for amassing disproportionate wealth’.