Kathmandu. The Ministry of Education and Sports has formed a three-member committee to investigate the possible involvement of the employees of the Ministry of Education and Sports regarding the forged letters and documents submitted for the recommendation of study visa.

The committee has been formed under the convenorship of Joint Secretary Chandrakanta Bhusal as per the ministerial decision. The other members of the committee are Ministry’s Under Secretary (Law) Gopi Krishna Regmi and Section Officer Gunaraj Bhattarai.

According to the Ministry, the committee has been mandated to carry out necessary investigation into the role and responsibilities of the employees of the ministry related to the incident and submit its report within seven days. The committee will also study the involvement of employees in the study visa recommendation process, the status of document verification and procedural weaknesses.

According to the Ministry, the investigation process has been initiated after the letters and documents submitted in the name of Valmiki Vidyapeeth regarding the recommendation of study visa were found to be fake. On the basis of this, the Ministry has requested the bodies concerned not to proceed further with the visa process of the foreign nationals recommended earlier.

“We will take further administrative and legal decisions based on the findings of the investigation,” the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier, it had written to the Ministry of Home Affairs after it was suspected that suspicious documents and fake receipts were used in the study visa recommendation process. The ministry has taken the incident as a serious matter related to the credibility of the study visa system and necessary administrative and legal decision will be taken based on the findings of the research.