Prime Minister (PM) Sher Bahadur Deuba’s relative Dipendra Kunwar has been promoted to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of the Armed Police Force (APF) amending the APF regulation.
Kunwar is husband of Bhanu Deuba’s sister. Bhanu Deuba is nephew and personal secretary of PM Deuba.
An APF source claimed that the regulation, that required APF personnel to serve for at least four years in a position to become eligible for promotion in APF, was amended for Kunwar’s promotion. Kunwar would complete four years as Superintendent of Police (SP) only in April 2023. So, the government amended the regulation on July 6 and changed the eligibility to three years.
The amended regulation was implemented immediately for promotion of Kunwar. The source added that Kunwar has also been promoted on Friday in a way that he is the top-ranked among those who joined the APF as inspectors in his batch. Praveen Kandel, who joined the APF from the Nepal Police, has been ranked top but he is set to retire soon. Kunwar is ranked second and top among those from his batch.
Kunwar had joined the APF as inspector on March 21, 2003. He was ranked toward the bottom of the 74 inspectors of his batch. But he was ranked 10th from among his batch mates when he was promoted to SP) from Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), and now made top-ranked among his batch mates.
Bishnu Prasad Bhatta who was the top-ranked inspector among the 74 from Kunwar’s batch has now been ranked behind Kunwar while being promoted to SSP.
There is widespread dissatisfaction in the APF after Kunwar has been promoted, and made top-ranked SSP from his batch just because he is PM Deuba’s relative.
This is not the first time that the government has taken decision in a way that benefits Kunwar, according to the APF source.
There is practice of making senior SPs acting SSP if there is vacancy of SSP. Eight positions of SSP were vacant in January 2021 but the government did not make any SP acting SSP for around a year. “But when the 11th position was vacant in December 2021, 11 SPs including Kunwar were made acting SSPs,” the source added.
There are currently three vacancies for Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in the APF. There is no experience eligibility for DIG as in junior positions and Kunwar will directly become a candidate for DIG, according to the source.
One must pass staff college to become DIG of the APF. Kunwar has twice failed entrance examinations for staff college, the source claims. “He was sent to the staff college of Nepal Army at Shivapuri for course without competition after he failed twice in entrance examinations. He was allowed to participate in the course on wish of the top level.”
Bhanu Deuba did not answer Setopati’s multiple calls. We then tried to talk with Kunwar about his leap in the force. “Are you brother-in-law of Bhanu Deuba or not?” Setopati asked Kunwar immediately after he picked the phone. “Who is peaking?” Kunwar asked. He asked for repetition of the question after this scribe introduced himself, but didn’t answer and disconnected the line when the question was repeated.
He called back two minutes later and said, “Yes, I am his brother-in-law.” When asked if he took a leap in career because he is PM’s relative, he said it’s not in his hands. “This is not what I can do (sic). The department does it. Ask the spokesperson about it.”
