The Nepal Police on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant against former deputy inspector general Nawaraj Silwal, who was recently elected to the House of Representatives on the CPN-UML ticket.

The Metropolitan Police Range, Teku wrote to the Metropolitan Police Range, Lalitpur to arrest Silwal and present him for interrogation. Additional Inspector General Jay Bahadur Chand, chief of the Metropolitan Police Commissioners’ Office, Rani Pokhari, confirmed that a letter was dispatched to the Lalitpur police.

Senior Superintendent of Police Rabindra Dhanuk, chief of the Kathmandu police range, also confirmed the correspondence. “This is just part of the investigation,” said SSP Dhanuk.

The Kathmandu police launched an investigation on Silawl on December 20 after the Supreme Court directed the government to take action against those involved in forging his performance evaluation report. Following the directives from the court, Nepal Police headquarters had handed the case to the range.

The apex court in the full text of its decision on a case related to appointment of the police chief has suggested discrepancies between the performance evaluation reports presented by the Public Service Commission and petitioner Silwal, and that a thorough investigation and action were required against those involved in document forgery.

Silwal first moved the Supreme Court on February 12, 2017, challenging the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government’s decision to promote DIG Jay Bahadur Chand to the post of inspector general.

But on March 21 last year, the apex court quashed the government’s decision to appoint Chand as the police chief, directing the Cabinet to take into account seniority, merit and performance while promoting officials. On the basis of the performance appraisal report submitted by Silwal, the bench had observed that Silwal had the highest marks among the four contenders—Chand, Silwal, Prakash Aryal and Bam Bahadur Bhandari.

The decision was believed to have cleared the deck for Silwal to get the post of police chief. But a month later, the government on April 10 that year appointed Aryal as the new police chief, prompting Silwal to move the court again. But his petition was quashed.

The Dahal-led government had appointed Aryal as the chief of Nepal Police, saying that the decision was taken after reviewing the marks obtained by the four contenders “in the last four years based on their performance, qualification, seniority and prize, among others”. The SC said the decision was lawful.

After failing to be promoted as the police chief, Silwal resigned from the force and joined the UML. He went on to win a seat on the House of Representatives from Lalitpur-1.

Silwal, in his petition, had argued “there have been irregularities in the performance review reports” of the four contenders. He had claimed that a review panel had deducted two points from his score sheet to promote Aryal to the post of IGP. This evaluation sheet presented by Silwal and his advocates has been deemed fake.