Indian police and travel company distance themselves from couple who said they climbed Everest

Police officers Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod claimed to have been the first Indian couple to reach the top of the world's highest mountain but fellow climbers have their doubts.

Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod say they scaled Everest last month but other climbers say their photos do not seem genuine. Photo courtesy State Home Minister Twitter page

MUMBAI // Indian police and an adventure travel company have distanced themselves from a couple’s claim that they reached the summit of Mount Everest after authorities launched investigations following doubts raised by fellow climbers.

Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod, who are both police officers from Pune, West India, announced at a press conference on June 5 that they had completed the gruelling climb to the peak of the world’s highest mountain on May 23.

The duo, both 30, claimed this made them the first Indian couple to reach the top.

But Mr and Mrs Rathod are now under investigation by their own police force after a group of Indian mountaineers pointed out a series of inconsistencies in the couple’s photos and presented evidence from climbers who were at Everest at the same time, which suggests they never made it to the top.

The group has filed complaints to police in Pune, as well as the Nepalese tourism authorities.

“I have initiated an inquiry to find out facts about the expedition and that’s all I can share right now,” Rashmi Shukla, the commissioner of police in Pune, said on Thursday. “It’s a fact-finding inquiry whether they have scaled Mount Everest or otherwise.”

The Pune police force appears to be distancing itself from the Rathod’s claims, however, deleting a tweet it posted on June 8 that read: “You have literally taken #MaharashtraPolice to new heights, Tarkeshwai & Dinesh Rathod.”

Meanwhile, the Makalu Adventure company, which organised the Rathods’ trip to Everest, on Thursday removed photos of the couple’s climb from its website.

Mohan Lamsal, who runs the Nepal-based company, said he took the action “because of the controversy”. The photos were given to him by the Rathods who said they pictured the couple – who were accompanied by two Sherpas during their climb – at the summit of Mount Everest.

“Because I got several complaints, I asked my Sherpas a hundred times: ‘Is this true or not? Is this true or not?’ and they said: ‘This is true. They climbed, sir, there is no doubt’,” said Mr Lamsal. “I wanted to know exactly what happened because I’m the organiser and I was not in the mountains.”

He said Nepal’s ministry of tourism had investigated the Rathods’ claims earlier in June and eventually certified their achievement.

The ministry of tourism did not respond to a request for comment.

According to Mr Lamsal, Mrs Rathod caught pneumonia during the descent and a helicopter was sent to the base camp. She spent about a week in hospital after the climb and “was really sick and nearly died”, he said.

Surendra Shelke, a Pune-based mountaineer with more than 20 years of experience, is a member of the group that filed complaints against the couple.

He alleges it was a “100 per cent fake summit” and that he and fellow climbers “are raising their voice against the false tendency of people like the Rathods in the mountaineering field”.

Mumbai-based Anjali Kulkarni, who is also part of the group challenging the couple's claim, emailed The National a copy of the complaint it filed to Nepal's tourism authorities.

The document raises questions over a series of photos of the Rathods, which showed them wearing different coloured suits and boots, but were supposed to have been taken at the summit of the mountain. Ms Kulkarni said it would be impossible to change one’s clothes and shoes at the summit without getting frostbite.

The complaint also alleges the images “have been cropped and pasted”, arguing that the direction of sunlight is incorrect given the Rathods’ claims they reached the peak early in the morning. It also highlights that the Indian flag appears to be still when there would have been some wind at the top of Everest.

The group also included the views of an Indian climber who said he met the Rathods at one of Everest’s base camps.

The climber, who remains anonymous, is quoted as saying that the Rathods did not reach the base camp until May 4, which would not have allowed them sufficient time to acclimatise and reach the summit by May 23 “unless the Rathods are super human fitness stars”.

Mrs Rathod, when contacted, said she was “not able to talk right now” and declined to comment on the matter. Mr Rathod did not answer calls made to his mobile phone.

Ms Kulkarni alleged that is not the first time the Rathods have overstated their mountaineering achievements. She said the couple claimed to have completed the Aussie 10 challenge successfully in 2014, which was celebrated in the Indian media.

But Ms Kulkarni, who said she was a co-team member on the challenge, alleged that the couple only successfully scaled five of Australia’s highest peaks, and not the ten that is required to complete the challenge.