Dr Sunil Kumar Sharma, a lawmaker from Nepal, was arrested from Golfutar on accusations of forging educational credentials on Thursday, August 10. Sharma reportedly managed to acquire a high school diploma from Bihar in India and used it to further his education in China.
Sunil Sharma is a Director at Kathmandu Medical College in Sinamangal and Nobel Medical College in Viratnagar. He is also a member of the House of Representatives and was elected from the Morang 3 constituency. He is a leader of the Nepal Congress, the largest party in the country and is considered close to the Shekhar Koirala camp.
A team of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police apprehended Sharma along with four others, Dr Rambabu Yadav, Dr Ranjit Yadav, Dr Elina Sah and Dr Amit Chaudhary. Notably, the former owns a few medical institutions and private colleges.
The politician submitted his Class 12 degree from B.D.B.K.S. College in Forbesganj in Bihar to the police. However, CIB, the Medical Council, and Nepal’s National Examination Board worked together to undertake the inquiry which revealed the certificate to be fraudulent. His certificates were not found in the records when the board sent a team to the Bihar School Examination Board two years ago for verification of the same.
With the aid of the Nepal Medical Council, the CIB carried out “Operation Quack,” which resulted in the capture of 59 doctors who had obtained false diplomas to study MBBS. The CIB notified the Parliament Secretariat of his arrest on 10th of August. The educational records that he provided to the Medical Council, according to CIB, were falsified, the organisation wrote in a letter to the secretariat.
The development came a few days after Sunil Sharma called for the resignation of the home minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha and the finance minister Prakash Sharan Mahat over the smuggling of over 100 kilogrammes of gold, which was recovered in a raid last month. When the House of Representatives met on July 10, he declared that he would embark on a hunger strike if the primary perpetrators in the case were not arrested.
Sharma voiced that both ministers should resign and cited several instances of individuals quitting their positions immediately due to scandals and controversies that had taken place in Nepal and around the world.
He charged, “Current finance minister and the home minister in this investigation should have been able to confirm that we’ve caught the main culprit behind the smuggling or give a deadline to find them. Otherwise, in order to further facilitate the investigation should step down from their post until and unless the main person behind the smuggling is caught.”
The finance minister turned down his demand and argued that the member of the parliament was irate with the government for rejecting his request for insurance coverage for patients receiving care at his private hospital.
