Six Deputy Inspectors General (DIG) of Nepal Police have been recommended for promotion to the rank of Additional Inspector General (AIG).
The promotion recommendation secretariat meeting held on Thursday recommended the promotion of six individuals to the post of AIG.
DIG Chandra Kuber Khapung is atop the promotion list followed by DIGs Lalmani Acharya, Krishna Hari Pokharel, Dan Bahadur Karki, Rajan Adhikari, and Dr. Manoj Kumar KC.
They have been recommended for promotion to AIG based on their seniority in the DIG rank. Among those recommended for AIG, Khapung, Acharya, and Sharma had joined the Nepal Police as Police Inspectors on November 13, 1995.
The remaining three had joined as Police Inspectors on March 31, 1998.
However, the batch that joined the National Investigation Department On December 20, 1996, has not been included in this promotion.
Khapung and Acharya were promoted to DIG on April 13, 2023. Sharma, however, missed that promotion and only became a DIG on May 26, 2024.
Currently, Khapung is in the CIB, Acharya is the Chief of Madhesh Province Police, and Sharma is the Chief of Bagmati Province Police. All three had competed along with incumbent Inspector General of Police (IGP), Deepak Thapa, for the position of Police Inspector and were on the alternate list before being recruited in November 1995.
Among them, one is likely to become the IGP and lead the organization for two months. Others who were promoted to DIG alongside Sharma—Dan Bahadur Karki, Manoj KC, and Rajan Adhikari—have now become AIGs. However, Adhikari was promoted ahead of KC.
Karki is the Chief of Lumbini Province Police, Adhikari is the Chief of Koshi Province Police, and KC is at the National Police Training Academy. A team including Siddhi Bikram Shah, who was recruited in the National Investigation Department on December 20, 1996, has not been included in this promotion cycle. Earlier, Rabi Lamichhane had bypassed Shah’s batch and promoted the 1998 batch instead. The current government has also prioritized the same batch.
Shah and five others from his batch were promoted to DIG on December 2, 2024. Others promoted alongside him—Sushil Singh Rathore, Uma Prasad Chaturvedi, Himalaya Kumar Shrestha, and Dambar Bahadur BK—have been left behind this time as well. They had been demanding justice, arguing that they should have been promoted to AIG earlier.
Out of the eight AIG positions allocated for the provincial assignments, only two are currently filled in the police force.
At the National Police Training Academy, only Sudip Giri and Tek Bahadur Tamang, the Chief of Kathmandu Valley Police Office in Ranipokhari, are currently serving. Five departments at the Nepal Police Headquarters and the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) are also without chiefs.
The Nepal Police Headquarters' Crime Investigation Department, Operations Department, Human Resource Development Department, Administration Department, and Provincial Coordination Department currently have no AIGs. The heads of these departments are supposed to be AIGs.
Similarly, the position of CIB chief has been vacant since Deepak Thapa was promoted to the post of IGP.
.
