PUNE: THE Nepal government has imposed a
10-year ban on a police couple from Pune who had allegedly bluffed about
scaling Mount Everest on May 23. Nepal officials have told Pune police a letter
has been sent to inform them of the decision to bar the couple from entering
Nepal for that period, Pune police commissioner Rashmi Shukla said.
“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,” Shukla said.
Dinesh and
Tarkeshwari Rathod, both 30 and serving constables with Pune police, held a
press meet in Kathmandu on June 5 and announced they scaled Everest on May 23,
becoming the first Indian couple to do so. The two are posted at Shivajinagar
headquarters of Pune city police. Shukhla said
she will initiate “strong” action against the couple. Asked if they can be
arrested, she said the action will be as per laid-down norms.
She said the
couple have been absconding since the Pune police initiated a departmental
inquiry against them. “The two have disappeared without a trace even as we were
conducting the inquiry,” she said.
Senior
officials added the couple might not be arrested, but could face demotion or
have their annual increments stopped. Officials said by remaining out of bounds
for the probe, the couple have “already confirmed they had done something
wrong”.
Days after
the couple’s press briefing, a group of mountaineers had approached Pune police
alleging they had faked their expedition. Surendra Shelke, one of the
complainants and secretary of a city-based mountaineering association, had alleged
the couple had morphed pictures and there were discrepancies in their
description of the summit. The Pune police probe followed.
A
mountaineer from Kolkata had told this paper that he and another climber had
scaled Everest on May 21 and their pictures were misused by the duo. “I had
scaled Mt Everest along with another climber and two sherpas on May 21,”
Satyrup Siddhantha, a software engineer working in Bangalore, had said. He said
he had given his pictures to some people, including sherpas at the base camp.
“They had
copied the pictures into their pen drives. They might have shared the pictures
with other climbers,” he said. Siddhantha had uploaded his pictures on Facebook
on June 2.
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