Major General Tara Dhwaj Pandey, who was first in line to become the Nepal Army (NC) chief, has resigned following controversy about his age.
Pandey, who was in course to being promoted to lieutenant general, has resigned Thursday evening, according to NA Headquarters after questions were asked about his age. His resignation has been approved Friday.
The NA Headquarters had also started internal investigation following complaint against him of correcting his age in citizenship certificate.
He was first in line to become NA chief after retirement of Prabhuram Sharma on September 9, 2024.
Setopati has received documents from the Office of the Controller of Examinations and the NA Headquarters that show different date of births.
The complaint received by the NA Headquarters state that he should have retired on January 26, 2022 as per the NA Regulations that require major generals to retire at 57 pointing that his date of birth is January 25, 1965 as per the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) records. The complaint accused him of extending his service for 20 months by forging his documents.
But his citizenship certificate issued from the Kathmandu District Administration Office on April 11, 1986 mentions that his date of birth was changed to December 8, 1966 as per the letter written by the office on April 7, 1986.
The State Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives (HoR) had also received a complaint pointing that correspondence was done by the Kathmandu District Administration Office to correct his date of birth even before his citizenship certificate was issued.
The Controller of Examinations regulations issued in 1961 has set a deadline of six months for correction of any mistake in SLC document and the complaint pointed that his age was corrected four years after he passed SLC.
There is also legal provision that recognizes the date of birth in SLC document or the date showing higher age if the date of birth are different in SLC document and citizenship certificate.
The documents acquired by Setopati show that Pandey acquired citizenship certificate by reducing his age and corrected his SLC and other educational certificates accordingly.
