A forensic study has shown that Deputy Inspector General Nawaraj Silwal forged his performance evaluation report presented to the Supreme Court as a proof to show that he was ahead of the incumbent Inspector General of Police Prakash Aryal while the both served as DIGs for four years.

The study report submitted to the Attorney General’s Office on Friday showed that Silwal’s evaluation report for the last fiscal year, 2015-16, was forged.

A detailed study of the Central Police Forensic Science Laboratory under the Crime Investigation Department of the Nepal Police showed that Silwal pasted a section of Aryal’s performance to his form to claim that he got the highest marks in four years on average.

The report will be presented to the Supreme Court for final hearing scheduled for Tuesday in a case of seniority among the DIGs. The report has suggested that Silwal’s performance report presented as proof was superimposed from Aryal’s.

The investigation showed that the performance evaluation reports for fiscal years 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 are genuine. With 39.46 marks against Aryal’s 39.2, Silwal leads in the marks for fiscal year 2012-13 while both of them have got equal marks in the two succeeding years.

However, in the fiscal 2015-16 Silwal got 38 while Aryal received 40.

The four-year average showed that with 154.2 marks Aryal was ahead of Silwal who got 152.46 in total. However, in the report submitted to the SC, Silwal’s report shows he got 40, equal to Aryal’s, in 2015-16.

The score of IG Aryal was verified by former AIG Pratap Singh Thapa on August 15, 2016 while the marks of DIG Silwal were attested by AIG Birendra Babu Shrestha on July 31, 2016. Former IG Upendra Kanta Aryal reviewed both the papers on September 1, 2016. It is for this reason that the Cabinet had decided to look into the matter, suspecting wrongdoing by DIG Silwal. Silwal, however, claims that he had not done anything wrong and has no idea about the marks.

The probe found that the marks handwritten on Silwal’s form are the same as Aryal’s including size, stroke, slant, curve and alignment. “That every unique characteristic in both the forms is the same can’t be mere coincidence,” the report obtained by the Post reads.

The controversy over performance evaluation arose after DIG Silwal filed a writ petition in the apex court on April 11, challenging the Cabinet decision to appoint Aryal as the new IG. Silwal, in his petition, argues that there have been irregularities in assessing the performance of the IG candidates. He claimed that the review panel deducted two points from his score to promote Aryal.

The SC has sought the original copy of the performance report, a sealed document, from the Public Service Commission. The truth will be revealed once the seal is broken on Tuesday at the apex court, based on which the final verdict will be made.