Nearly two months after it initiated an investigation, the Nepal government has imposed a 10-year ban on Maharashtra police couple, Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod, barring them from entering that country for falsifying claims of their ascent on Mount Everest.
In July, the Nepal government had ordered a thorough probe to check the veracity of the Rathods’s claims in the light of fellow mountaineers saying the couple had faked their ostensibly gruelling ascent to the 8,848-metre summit. The Pune police, too, had conducted an investigation and recorded statements of the couple and their fellow mountaineers.
Incidentally, the Rathods have not reported for duty at the Shivajinagar police station (where they are posted) for more than a month even as a departmental enquiry against them is in progress.
“The Nepal government’s probe confirms that they [the Rathods] lied all the way. Needless to say, this affair has been most unfortunate and has blemished the image of the Pune police force, bringing dishonour in its wake,” said Pune Police Commissioner Rashmi Shukla. Their disappearance only confirmed their guilt, she added.
“I will take action once I get a full report of the internal inquiry against them. They had recorded their statements, and have since vanished,” said Ms. Shukla.
The Commissioner said the city police have yet to receive the Nepal government’s letter barring the duo from entering the country and conducting further expeditions there.
While the police did not specify what penalty awaited the Rathods, senior officials said the couple would find avenues for their advancement blocked and their increments halted in future.
On June 5, the Rathods held a press conference where they claimed to be the first Indian couple, and also first police couple, to scale Mt. Everest on May 23, setting a record of sorts.
However, their claims were found untrue with fellow mountaineers in Pune and Mumbai accused them of grossly distorting facts about their ascent.
In late June, a team of mountaineers led by city-based mountaineer Surendra Shelke, conferred with Ms. Shukla while alleging the duo had ‘photoshopped’ pictures of their ascent to the summit.
The group had alleged that no one seemed to have seen the duo beyond base camp nor had they completed the gruelling preliminary necessary for the climb. They debunked the Rathods’ earlier claims of successfully scaling Australia’s highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko and of having completed the ‘Aussie 10 Challenge’ programme (which involves surmounting the 10 highest peaks of Australia).
More revelations ensued after Satyarup Siddhanta, a Bengaluru-based software engineer who hailed from Kolkata, lodged a complaint with the Kolkata cyber crime police on July 1 alleging that the couple had morphed pictures of his ascent to the Mount Everest summit.
Mr. Siddhanta complained that the Rathods had morphed photos of his expedition of June 21 by superimposing themselves on it and that Makalu Treks – the company which organised the Rathods’ expedition – in turn had uploaded the photo on their website with their watermark. The company quickly deleted the photos from their website once the scam unravelled.
The Department of Tourism (DoT) in Nepal had issued certificates to the couple on June 10 after the Rathods misled officials with their morphed photos. Meanwhile, according to reports, the DoT has blacklisted the two Sherpa guides, Furba and Fursemba, on grounds that they abetted the falsehood perpetrated by the Rathods, leading the authorities to believe the Indian police couple had indeed climbed the Everest successfully.
