Telangana News

Pune police personnel Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod, who claimed as the first married couple in history to scale Mt. Everest, were suspended from the Maharashtra Police, for faking the achievement.

Announcing their suspension, Pune Police Commissioner Rashmi Shukla also ordered for a full-fledged departmental inquiry against the couple who had “spoiled India's image before the world”.

But the fraud came to light after Satyarup Sidhantha, a Bengaluru based mountaineer exposed Rathod couple, saying the photos, they showed as proof of their achievement actually belonged to him.

The issue then went viral and within no time, Nepal Tourism Board Director-General Sudarshan P. Dhakal imposed a 10-year ban on mountaineering expeditions by the Rathods and cancelled the merit certificate presented to them for their Mt. Everest achievement.

On the other side, the couple expedition organizer Mohan Lamsal, chief of Kathmandu-based Makalu Adventures, said that, the Rathods had scaled Mt. Everest on May 23rd and they were taken there by his company's Sherpas.

The couple joined the Maharashtra Police in 2006 and later got married in 2008. Both shared a common passion for mountaineering and adventure sports.