Subhechcha Ganguly 
A Nepali politician who had been calling for the resignation of the home and finance ministries due to a gold smuggling scandal was detained for fabricating academic credentials.On Thursday, authorities in Nepal detained a politician on suspicion of fabricating academic credentials. Sunil Kumar Sharma, a member of the Nepali Congress, is accused of purchasing an upper secondary diploma from Bihar and using it to continue his education in China.According to PTI, which cited police spokesperson Kuber Kadayat, a team from the Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) detained Sunil Sharma, a member of the House of Representatives from the country’s ruling party, in Kathmandu.
Sharma, who was chosen to represent Morang-3 in the House of Representatives, is thought to be linked to the Shekhar Koirala faction of the Nepali Congress, and his detention has caused tremors within the ruling coalition.A few days after calling for the resignation of the home minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha and the finance minister Prakash Sharan Mahat over the alleged smuggling of 100 kg of gold, which was recovered in a raid last month, Sharma was arrested. Sharma is the owner of a few medical colleges and private colleges.
An Indian and a Chinese national were among the 18 people detained in connection with the illegal passage of over 100 kg of gold through Tribhuvan International Airport’s customs on the evening of July 18.Sharma recommended that both ministers resign after citing several instances of people quitting their jobs immediately due to scandals and controversies that had occurred in Nepal and around the world.”In this inquiry, the current finance minister and the home minister should have been able to confirm that we had apprehended the primary offender responsible for the smuggling or provide a deadline to do so. If not, they should resign from their position until and unless the primary perpetrator of the smuggling is apprehended in order to aid the inquiry, Sharma added.According to Indian Express, Mahat denied the demand and claimed Sharma was upset with the government for denying insurance coverage requests for patients receiving care at his private hospital.
