Maharashtra Police Couple Who Spread Rumor Of Climbing Everest, Suspended And Banned From Entering Nepal

A Maharashtra police couple has been suspended from the Pune Police force when they failed to justify their claims of ascending Mount Everest, before a departmental probe panel.

Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod on June 5, 2016, held a press conference announcing their successful ascent to the summit of Mt Everest on May 23, 2016. They also claimed they were the first security forces personnel to have done so. Another team who were also a part of the same expedition alleged that the duo had photoshopped their pictures of their ascent. The group also alleged that no one had seen the duo beyond base camp.

A Bengaluru-based software engineer Satyarup Siddhanta lodged a complaint with the Kolkata cyber crime police in July alleging that the couple had morphed the pictures of their expedition by editing and superimposing themselves on it and that Makalu Treks- the company which organised the Rathods’ expedition originally uploaded the summit photo with a watermark.

A thorough investigation was ordered by Pune police and the Nepal government to confirm the claims made by the couple. After ascertaining that the duo had faked their successful climb story, the Nepal Government banned the couple from undertaking any more expeditions in their country.

Pune Police suspended the duo as they failed to show up to defend the charges levelled against them even after being given time to clear their names.

“The very fact that they have not bothered to turn up despite claiming they would do so points to their firm guilt. As a result, we have decided to place them under indefinite suspension beginning today,” Ms Shukla said, as reported by The Hindu.

In the digital age, every piece of information we present can and is cross-checked. Fifteen minutes of fame are not worth the repercussions of a lifetime when truth is inevitably revealed.