Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: A colonel of the Nepal Army has been dismissed from service.
A Summary General Court Martial decided to discharge Colonel Direndra Kumar Malla from service on Tuesday after finding discrepancies in his date of birth in his academic certificates. He, however, won’t be unfit to join the service in the future, according to Nepal Army Spokesperson Brigadier General Gaurav KC.
Colonel Malla was serving as the military attaché at the New York-based Nepal’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations. According to KC, the process to send a new military attaché to New York has already begun.
The army headquarters summoned Colonel Malla to Kathmandu after a complaint was filed regarding his date of birth. The army headquarters had then formed a court inquiry to investigate the complaint.
Meanwhile, the Nepal Army has said that it would also bring such discrepancies of other military officials into the scope of the investigation. Army sources say although there were no issues in recent recruitments, tampering with documents to correct dates of birth has been found in older recruitments. A team is internally studying this matter, according to an army officer.
Sources say there are suspicions that some divisional commanders may also have tampered with documents. The army headquarters is looking into such discrepancies of even the high-ranking military officials.
In November last year, Major General Tara Dhwaj Pandey was forced to resign after the army headquarters initiated proceedings to dismiss him due to discrepancies found in the date of birth mentioned on his academic certificates.
