Nepali Ambassador to Australia Lucky Sherpa resigned from her post on Friday.

Claiming that the accusations leveled against her were baseless, Ambassador Sherpa said she decided to resign on moral grounds.

The government has been urging Ambassador Sherpa to put her papers after her driver Wongchhu Sherpa accused her of taking money from Nepalis to smuggle them into Australia. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had even summoned her to Kathmandu from Canberra to carry out an investigation into the allegation.

A report submitted by a panel of three joint secretaries at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs formed to investigate into the charges leveled by Sherpa’s driver also suggested that the government should not give continuity to her career as an ambassador after she failed to provide convincing evidences against the charges by her own driver.

Earlier on January 31, Ambassador Sherpa returned to Kathmandu from Canberra with her family members, in an indication that her tenure as envoy has now come to an end.

The main opposition Nepali Congress had also drawn the attention of the government to take steps to remove her if she was found guilty of the charges.

According to Wongchhu’s account, he had collected more than Rs3 million, on behalf of the ambassador and her husband, from several individuals in Nepal in return for a safe passage to Australia. He said he had promised to collect another Rs6 million for the couple before leaving his job. Wongchhu had accompanied the ambassador to Canberra after she was assigned to the role in May 2017.

Wongchhu, who was reportedly fired from his job last November, claimed in a recent television interview that he was ordered by the Sherpa couple to collect money from several individuals in Nepal in return for a safe passage to Australia.

Wongchhu also said that he has a recording of a phone conversation between him and the ambassador to corroborate his claim.

A day after the allegation against envoy Sherpa, the Embassy of Nepal issued a press release claiming that the accused Wongchhu Sherpa was someone, who was on the run since 29 November, 2017. He had allegedly made off with valuables from the envoy’s residence.