Kathmandu, Aug 17: The Everest Summit certificates earlier given to an Indian couple will be cancelled as a high-level probe committee found them to have cheated the Nepalese authorities by submitting false and tampered evidences – including doctored photographs.

The panel, headed by under secretary at Nepalese tourism ministry Tika Ram Pandey, found that Dinesh Chandrakant Rathod and his wife Tarkeshwari Chandrakant Bhelerao Rathod of Maharastra, India had not reached the summit – but obtained the Everest Summit Certificates based on the false documents and tampered photographs, one of the probe committee members said.

The committee also recommended a ban on them from visiting Nepalfor mountaineering purpose, said Laxman Sharma, under secretary at the department of tourism and member of the committee.

The probe committee was formed to investigate the case following a report that the Indian couple did not scale the Everest but obtained The Summit Certificate on the false documents and tampered photographs.

The photographs submitted by the Rathod couple were found forged as another Indian Everest climber Satyarup Siddhanta accused the couple of doctoring his photographs.

The couple had obtained the permission to climb Mount Everest for the 2016 spring season.

Read : Indian couple who ‘conquered Everest’ are caught by the real climber: photoshop may also help in climbing Everest

Based on the recommendation of the panel, the tourism department will cancel their certificates and might impose a ban on them from visiting Nepal for mountaineering purpose for ten years, said director general at the tourism department Sudarshan Prasad Dhakal.

The Rathod couple had obtained the Everest Summit Certificate in June. They had claimed that they reached the Everest summit on May 23.

Nepal’s Mountaineering Expedition Regulation states that the government may ban a mountaineering expedition team or its members from entering Nepal for a period up to five years or ban for mountaineering in Nepal for a period up to 10 years for violating the conditions specified in the permit and committing any immoral conduct or behaviour during the mountaineering mission.

Over 500 people, including Nepalese and foreigners, seek permits to climb the world’s tallest peak annually but less than 200 make it to the Everest summit.

So far 4,428 mountaineers have reached the summit of Everest since 1953 when New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Tenzing Norgay Sherpa first successfully climbed the world’s tallest peak.