Some documents of missing mountaineer Chhanda Gayen are missing from her bag, alleged her mother Jaya Gayen and brother Jyotirmay Gayen here on Tuesday. Both of them visited Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the temporary Secretariat, Nabanna, on Tuesday.
Speaking to journalists, Mr. Gayen said some documents, including letters of permission to scale the Himalayas and her training certificate, were missing from the bag, which Ms. Gayen had carried till the base camp in Nepal for her expedition to scale the Kanchenjunga.
“We found the items missing after the bag was sent to our house. Had I been given the bag when I was in Nepal [to oversee the rescue operations], I would have spoken to the authorities concerned regarding the issue of the missing documents,” Mr. Gayen said.
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Ms. Gayen and her two missing Sherpa guides went missing on May 20 after she was swept away by an avalanche during an expedition on Yalung Kang, the peak adjacent to Kanchenjunga Main. The Nepal government issued a ‘missing/death’ certificate for Ms. Gayen, in keeping with their policy of issuing such a certificate for anyone who is missing for more than three days while on expeditions.
Ms. Gayen was the second Bengali civilian woman to scale Mount Everest. Soon after the 35-year-old went missing, Ms. Banerjee assured all help to Ms. Gayen’s family and had even expressed her desire to go to Nepal to oversee rescue operations.