KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has reopened investigation into an Indian couple who were slapped mountaineering ban in Nepal for a decade, getting their summit certificates rescinded for presenting morphed photographs to show themselves on the top of the world’s highest peak.

The ministry has decided to reopen the case after Dinesh Chandrakant Rathod and his wife Tarkeshwari Chandrakant Bhelerao who were dismissed from the police service in Pune, Maharashtra for falsifying claims of their ascent on Mt Everest last spring, filed an application in the ministry seeking for the re-issuance of their summit certificates at the earliest.

After receiving the Indian couple’s application, Minister Jitendra Narayan Dev of the caretaker government immediately issued a written order in the name of the Department of Tourism for the reopening of an investigation into the case, a Joint Secretary in the ministry, shared.

Dinesh Bhattarai, Director General at the Department of Tourism confirmed that the ministry set up a three-member committee under his leadership to reopen the case. According to him, an under-secretary each from the ministry and the DoT has been named as members of the committee. “The panel will submit its report to the Minster by early next week,” he told THT.

The panel was studying the decisions and actions taken earlier by the government authorities as well as it was also summoning Rathod couple, respective DoT officials, liaison officer, expedition handling agency and others concerned, Bhattarai shared.

As per the minister-level decision taken in August, the couple had faced a decade-long mountaineering ban in Nepal, getting their certificates rescinded. After a month-long investigation, the government panel had also concluded that the photographs submitted to the DoT by the Maharashtra police couple as evidence of their Everest summit were doctored.

The Rathods had obtained certificates from the DoT on June 10 by submitting morphed pictures that showed themselves on the roof of the world on May 23, 2016 with Liaison Officer Ganesh Prasad Timsina and Makalu Adventure approving their claims. The Sherpa guides, on the other hand, had remained out of contact at the time the couple’s claims were questioned. The photos submitted by the Rathod couple were found faked after Satyarup Siddhanta, an Indian climber from Bangalore, accused the couple of doctoring his May 21 photographs atop the Mt Everest.

They (Rathods) are now in Kathmandu to lobby with the government authorities for getting their summit certificates back, an official at Makalu Adventure, confirmed. Makalu Adventure, the trekking agency which ran the Everest expedition for Rathod Couple, had also been fined USD 4,000 for helping them obtain summit certificates by submitting all fake claims to the DoT.