Suspicions over Anuja Baniya story prompts Prez inquiry

DHARAN, April 22: The President´s Office has asked Morang Chief District Office to examine the facts about the Anuja Baniya story after the very credibility of the story came under cloud. Baniya hogged media limelight this week after newspapers reported that she returned an abandoned bag containing Rs 9.1 million and a diamond necklace to its rightful owner.[break]

 

However, following the reports on Friday that questioned the story´s credibility, President Ram Baran Yadav´s personal secretary Lalit Basnet rang up Morang CDO seeking verification on the story.



“Newspapers had published reports about the president appreciating Baniya´s deed. But after reports questioned the veracity of the story, the president´s office has found itself in an awkward position,” a source said. “The president´s office has directed Morang´s Chief District Officer to cross-check to find out the truth behind the incident,” the source added. The source said Morang´s CDO has transferred the responsibility to Sunsari´s CDO Ram Prasad Thapaliya saying the matter did not fall under his jurisdiction. Thapaliya denied having received any such directive, though he admitted that he had a phone conversation with Basnet two days ago.



Meanwhile, Anuja´s brother-in-law Chakra Bista said a person from the National Investigation Department´s Biratnagar office met her in connection to the matter. “Owing to the rumors, one person came this morning to inquire about the matter,” said Bista, who resides in Itahari, but refused to divulge further details. He attributed the spread of rumors to the curiosity surrounding the owner of the bag, Purushottam Pokharel, who has not made himself public so far.



Anuja Baniya reportedly found the bag in a bus she was traveling in on April 7. She reportedly found the owner´s contact in the bag, contacted him, and returned the bag on April 9. According to our Itahari correspondent, Baniya has moved from Dharan to Itahari. “I had to move because locals in Dharan were angry that I did not inform them after finding such a huge sum of wealth,” she said.



Baniya claimed that she indeed found the bag and returned it to its owner. “But I did keep their contact number, and they have not contacted me so far,” she said.



Pokharel is said to have withdrawn the sum from IME, Itahari, and traveled to Dharan to purchase land for his daughter but forgot the bag in the bus. IME Itahari´s manager Darshan Shrestha, however, said the branch has not released such sum since April 2.

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