Sandhya Rai
Kumaripati, April26
The story about a twenty-two-year old girl, Anuja Baniya, who suddenly came to limelight after her story about returning Rs 9.1 million she found in a bus to the rightful owner, has turned out to be a fake.
Anuja’s story has been confirmed as a hoax after Kantipur daily, the newspaper which reported the story of Anuja’s ‘honesty’ last Wednesday, apologised for the erroneous news Monday.
The daily has said, the news was published based on the anecdotes of Anuja and other persons then identified as son, daughter of one Purushottam Pokhrel, reputed as the rightful owner of the money.
It has been revealed that the characters were intentionally created to make news, mentions the apology published by Kantipur daily Monday.
Anuja had suddenly come to limelight on Wednesday after the story. High profile personalities including President Ram Baran Yadav and Chief Justice Ram Prasad Shrestha had called her appreciating her integrity.
However, the story became doubtful from the next day when the IME branch in Itahari, from where the money was reportedly withdrawn, said there had been no transaction of that amount on the mentioned date.
The story became further doubtful after Purushottam Pokhrel, the mentioned owner of the money, could not be identified.
The motive behind creating the hoax story is still not clear.
