The Nepal Army on Thursday convicted 173 of its personnel for their involvement in accepting bribes in the recruitment process last year.

A court-martial led by Maj Gen Sharad Giri after a month-long investigation decided to book the guilty as per the army law and according to their level of involvement in the irregularity. Those who faced action were the ones who solicited bribes from aspiring soldiers by assuring them jobs as well as the ones who managed to get hired by giving bribes.

The Giri-led army court has sacked 112 people, among which 101 were the new recruits who managed to secure the job through bribery. They, however, aren’t disqualified to get government positions in the future.

According to army Spokesperson Brig Gen Gokul Bhandari, the court-martial was set up after the court of inquiry, led by a Brig Gen, found the involvement of 187 personnel, including 23 officers, in the irregularity. The court-martial, however, gave a clean chit to 14 individuals from the 187.

The army court has also decided to fine Rs 32.27 million from the convicted to recover the bribed money to cover the loss the army faced during the recruitment. The court-martial has announced six years of jail-term to two personnel and up to three years of imprisonment to six others. Issues of irregularities in appointments and promotions such as these in the army are not uncommon. Only a few months ago, former Chief of Army Staff Rajendra Chhetri was accused of bypassing the merits of 47 lieutenant colonels during their promotion.

A number of senior lieutenants had filed a complaint against Chhetri at the Prime Minister’s Office, blaming him of tampering with the promotion list and inserting the names of his favourite officers, even though they were from junior batches.

Officers from senior batches were disregarded and Chhetri’s kin, despite being junior, were promoted at the time. The issue had landed at the PMO after Defence Minister Ishwar Pokharel endorsed Chhetri’s list without any question.