Clockwise from left: Portraits of missing pilgrims pasted on a gate of the Jolly Grant Airport in Dehradun on Friday. A policeman shows the money recovered from some sadhus rescued from Kedarnath on Wednesday. Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne consoles the family members of one of the crewmembers who died in the helicopter crash in Uttarakhand on Tuesday while on a relief mission. The bodies of the five IAF crewmembers were brought to the Hindon air base on the outskirts of Delhi on Friday. PTI pictures

Govindghat/Guptkashi, June 28: Nirala Das carried a sadhu’s potli when he got down at the Guptkashi helipad.

One moment he was telling reporters how he had waited at Garudchatti near Kedarnath and heard the ‘‘earthquake’’ along with a hundred other purported sadhus.

A few minutes later, his bluff was called as police fished out of his bag little purses thought to belong to the dead. Das was taken into custody.

Baba Raman Bharati, who claimed to be from Himmatnagar district in Gujarat, was on Wednesday found carrying thousands of rupees during frisking at Gauchar airport. Baba Deva Das was found with serially numbered notes, possibly gathered from the dead at Kedarnath.

With police administration in the mountains failing, stories of Nepalese settlers and sadhus robbing the dead have been doing the rounds. Army officers talked of bodies without fingers and wrists and of harried pilgrims being led in the wrong direction only to be robbed later.

Many attribute the failure of law and order to the absence of police station in Kedarnath. There are just temporary chowkies manned by what is known as the prantiya rakshak dal.

This is an antiquated system of ‘‘revenue police’’ in most mountainous districts in Uttarakhand.

Under this system, the patwari is the sub-inspector and the revenue inspector is the inspector. The system is under the deputy commissioner or collector.

The local people claim the revenue police were the first to scoot from Kedarnath when disaster struck, leaving the people vulnerable to robbers and the elements.

In contrast, Badrinath reported loss of property and livelihoods but there were few robberies in the area because of the presence of police and the paramilitary.

Army and paramilitary forces engaged in rescue operations then began to check the belongings of people, many found to be heading to Kedarnath instead of coming back. There were the likes of Asansol-born Jan Baba who was detained at Gauchar along with Baba Deva Das and Baba Raman Bharati.

“Why would I rob the dead, that is money given by the government,” Jan said.

The Badrinath Congress MLA, Rajendra Bhandari, said sheer fear stirred by the disaster may have paralysed the revenue police.

‘‘The patwaris had folded and hidden their uniforms and even we didn’t have the heart to identify ourselves,’’ he said at Govindghat.

Many feel a proper police post in the mountains may have made a difference in the first two days. They claimed the revenue police were largely used by corrupt politicians for deforestation and land-grabbing.

There are revenue police chowkies in all districts except Udhamsingh Nagar in Kumaon division and Dehradun and Hardwar districts in Garhwal.