Attorney General Basanta Ram Bhandari on Thursday said he has given his resignation letter to the Prime Minister’s Office. His resignation is yet to be approved, according to reports.

With the change of government on Thursday, the government attorneys has stopped working on the case relating to the forgery case of former Deputy Inspector General Nawaraj Silwal, elected member of house of representative of CPN-UML from Lalitpur.

AG Bhandari said government attorneys have stopped the case fearing reprisal from the new government. “I followed up on the case on Thursday. However, the case was already put on hold by the attorneys who said they will not proceed further,” said AG Bhandari. “All of them have changed their mind on the case. I am not sure how will this government give a clean chit to Silwal who has been charged on forgery case by the police.” Police had submitted Silwal’s case file to the government attorney’s office on Wednesday concluding their month-long investigation. While the government attorneys were reluctant to take in the case on Wednesday, AG Bhandari had intervened in the matter. Bhandari had said that case against Silwal will be registered at any cost. 

Interestingly on Thursday, as political events speeded resulting in change of government, even AG Bhandari was denied information on the case. Silwal is known to be close to newly elected PM KP Sharma Oli. 

In their investigation, police have clearly identified the document submitted by Silwal in the Supreme Court was forged and indirectly identifies Silwal as culprit in the case. They have said evidence backed by forensic test proves the document is counterfeit while it does not match with the evaluation documents kept at the Public Service Commission and the Nepal Police Headquarters.

The Kathmandu police started investigating Silwal on December 20 after the Supreme Court directed the government to take action against those involved in forging his performance evaluation report. Following the court directives, the Nepal Police headquarters handed the case to the range.

The apex court, in the full text of its decision on the case concerning the appointment of the police chief, said there were discrepancies between the performance evaluation reports presented by the Public Service Commission and petitioner Silwal. The SC had called for a thorough investigation and ordered action against those involved in forging the document.