Nepal has opened an investigation into an Indian couple from Pune accused of falsifying photographs to claim summiting Mount Everest this year, an official said Monday.
Indian police constables Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod earlier told reporters they reached the top of the 29,029-foot peak on May 23.
But their claims came under the lens after fellow climbers accused the couple of digitally altering photographs of themselves on the summit.
Fellow climbers say the couple never reached the summit and used someone else's photographs to earn their climbing certificates.
Another Indian climber, Satyarup Sidhantha from Bangalore, said it's his photograph the couple altered to make it appear as though they were on the summit.
"We have started an investigation into the Indian police couple's claim of scaling Mount Everest," said Nepal tourism chief, Sudarshan Prasad Dhakal.
The tourism department initially certified the couple's summit claims after speaking to their expedition organisers and to government officials stationed at Everest base camp, Mr Dhakal told news agency AFP.
"In order to provide a certificate to the climber, we rely on their photograph on top of Mount Everest.... If someone fakes their photos, it's hard to determine that they are not original," Mr Dhakal said.
"If proven guilty, we will invalidate the Indian couple's certificate and charge them with forgery and fraud."
The probe began on Sunday evening, he said.
It is not technically an offence to pretend to summit Everest, but authorities are investigating the couple for fraud after eight other climbers filed a complaint against them in India, saying such a con belittles the efforts of genuine mountaineers.
