Indian police couple's accused of taking photo of summit at Mount Everest

Police in India are investigating claims by two climbers who say they are the country's first couple to conquer the world's highest peak, Mount Everest, but mountaineers have lodged a complaint saying they never made it.

The husband and wife pair from Pune, Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod told reporters this month that they reached the 8,850 metres (29,035ft) summit on May 23.

But eight other mountaineers told that they never made it to the summit and had "morphed" photographs of themselves at the top. The couple have reportedly denied the claims.

The couple' critics say they arrived at base camp very late in the climbing season to have a chance of reaching the top and pointed to apparent contradictions in the photographs publish online by Dinesh

"These are the biggest giveaways, the pictures are clearly morphed," Anjali Kulkarni told Mid Day.

He said that in the photographs purporting to show the Rathods at the summit, the distinctive mountaineering clothes the couple were wearing appeared to have changed from earlier in the climb.

"Both seem to have changed their climbing boots too, in seperates pictures. Being able to change one's clothes mid-climb and not get frostbitten would be a miracle," Kurkani said.

A group of mountaineers have accused the Rathods of making false claims, with several of them recording statements with the Pune police as part of an official complaint lodged with the city's police commissioner.

The Rathods held a press conference on June 5, to announce that their "dreams have been realized" and they had scaled the summit.

But Pune-based climber, Surendra Shelke, who is one of a number of Indian mountaineers to have raised doubts about the couple's claim. He said his suspicions, "were first aroused owing to the time lag between the day the Rathods claimed to have reached the summit and their press meet announcing their achievement."

A photographs of Tarakeshwari Rathod brandishing the Indian flag on the summit, which was used by the Nepal Tourism Board to verify their claim, has also been questioned, with skeptics saying that the shadows suggest it was taken closer to noon.

The couple were accused in 2014 of making a false claim in the Indian media to have completed the Aussie 10 Challenge, which involves climbing Australia's 10 peaks.

However, the chied of Kathmandu-based, Makalu Adventure, which organized the ascent, told the BBC that he had "no doubt" the couple had scaled the world's highest peak.

"They were taken to the summit by sherpas who worked for my company for several years and they reached the summit on May 23, Mohan Lamsal told the BBC.

Lamsal said that Tarakeshwari Rathod had contracted pneumonia on the way down, and her company had sent a helicopter to fly her out from base camp to Kathmandu for treatment.

"She was in hospital for a week. Only after she recovered, the couple could hold a press meet in India to announce their achievement.

Lamsal also said, Nepalese authorities had issued the climbing certificates to the couple after "investigating the matter and interviewing the couple" following complaints by some climbers in India.


source:
The Guardian & other news