Lieutenant General Ashokraj Sigdel, who is senior most in Nepal Army, has been given the responsibility of COAS of Nepal Army.

Government spokesperson Prithvisubba Gurung informed that the meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Monday decided to give him the responsibility of Chief of Army Staff.

The three-year term of the current Chief of Army Staff General Prabhuram Sharma is ending on September 9. Since it is a Nepal Army’s tradition to take leave a month before that. CoAS General Sharma is taking leave from 8 August.

Lieutenant General Taradhwaj Pandey had resigned after an investigation into the date of birth controversy. Then General Sigdel came to the role of CoAS. After there was a controversy about him, Army Headquarter conducted an internal investigation and found nothing wrong on his date of birth.

In a press conference held recently, Nepal Army’s spokesman Gaurav Kumar KC said that there was no difference in age, certificate number and date of issue between the citizenship obtained by Sigdel for the first time from District Administration Office, Rupandehi and the 'first copy' taken later.

He said that the date of birth did not differ between the SLC certificate submitted by General Sigdel during his enlistment in the Nepali Army and the certificate issued by the then Suping Multipurpose Campus (currently Sainik Residential College).

Along with this, the door for Geneeral Sigdel to become the 45th Commander-in-Chief of the Nepalese Army opens.

Who is Sigdel?

Born in Bhairawa of Rupandehi distirct, General Sigdel entered the Nepal Army service 37 years ago. He has done postgraduate studies in Strategic Studies from Tribhuvan University and National Defense University of China.

A student of the Army Command and Staff College, he has led the war operations department and the directorate general of order, policy and planning of Jangi Adda.

General Sigdel, who has also been the military secretary of the Commander-in-Chief, also worked at the leadership level of the Covid-19 Crisis Management Center.