Police couple from Pune dismissed for faking Everest climb

Suspended Pune police constable couple Dinesh Rathod and Tarkeshwari Rathod, who lied about climbing the Mount Everest and circulated morphed photos of their ‘mountaineering feat’ in May last year, have been dismissed from the force, a senior official said today. The couple was suspended in November last year after a probe panel formed by the police called out their lie.

“The couple faked about the Everest ascent, morphed the photographs, shared misleading information and while doing this, brought disrepute to the Maharashtra Police department and did not report to duty,” said Sahebrao Patil, Additional Commissioner of Police (Administration). “Based on the inquiry, we dismissed the couple from the department and an order to this effect was issued on Saturday,” Mr Patil said.

After the couple claimed that they had become the first ‘police couple’ from India to scale Mt Everest, a group of mountaineering experts from Pune and Bengaluru sought a police inquiry. A person from Bengaluru also told cops the couple had morphed their photograph clicked at the summit.