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.
Dinesh
and Tarakeshwari Rathod told reporters this month that they reached the 8,850m
(29,035ft) summit on 23 May.
But
some mountaineers alleged the couple, who are both police officers, faked their
achievement by circulating digitally altered photos of the climb.
Mr
and Mrs Rathod deny the claims, as do the guides who climbed with them.
Contacted
by the BBC, Tarakeshwari Rathod insisted that she and her husband had
"climbed Everest".
The
pair work as constables in the western Indian city of Pune, where police are
now carrying out an inquiry.
A senior
Pune police official told the BBC that officers were "clarifying the facts
with the couple and a group of mountaineers" who had objected to their
claim.
"The
couple have [climbing] certificates from Nepal government's tourism and
mountaineering department. We will approach the government to find out whether
these certificates are genuine," the official, who preferred to remain
unnamed, said.
'Dream realised'
The Rathods held a press conference on 5 June to announce that their
"dreams have been realised" 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, 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".
They
also alleged that some of the photographs circulated by the couple showing them
on the climb had been photoshopped.
Other
allegations are that the couple could not have reached the summit so soon after
they were seen to have arrived at base camp, and that the photos appear to show
them in two different sets of clothes and boots while on the climb.
However,
the chief of Kathmandu-based Makalu Adventure, which organised the ascent, told
the BBC he had "no doubt" the couple had scaled the world's highest
peak.
The company's website
also contains pictures of the couple that they say were taken on the
summit.
"They were taken
to the summit by sherpas who worked for my company for several years and they
reached the summit on 23 May," Mohan Lamsal told the BBC.
Mr Lamsal said Mrs Rathod had contracted pneumonia on the
way down, and his 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, could the couple hold a press meet in India to announce the
summit."
Mr Lamsal 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.
"There is some politics going on [in this
case]," he said.
Representative
Image
Source: BBC
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