Nepal government imposed a 10-year ban on a Pune couple after they allegedly faked climbing Mount Everest.
Nepal officials sent a letter to Pune police, inform them of the decision to bar the couple from entering Nepal for that period
“This means the probe ordered by Nepal government has confirmed the two had lied about scaling Everest… This is indeed shocking. The couple have tarnished the image not only of police force but of the whole country,” Pune police commissioner Rashmi Shukla was quoted saying.
In a press conference held in Kathmandu on June 5, Tarakeshwari and Dinesh Rathod, who are serving as constables in Pune police claimed that they scaled Mount Everest on May 23.
Although the couple will not be arrested, they would face Shukla face demotion or have their annual increments stopped, said senior official, according to Indian Express.
A group of mountaineers had approached Pune police with a complaint that the couple had faked their expedition by morphing photographs at the peak. Satyarup Siddhanta, a mountaineer from Bengaluru who had actually made the ascent, claimed that his summit photos had been misused by the couple.
“Of the four pictures of the couple I saw, three are completely morphed. The fourth picture had been released as it was. The fourth picture shows me in a yellow climbing suit. I have it and can produce it,” said Siddhantha.
