April Fools Day ‘prank’ leaves Bahrain expat in a fix

Manama: An expat has urged netizens to stop sharing the image of a fake news report that portray him as a fraudster possibly as an April Fools Day prank. 

The news that was made to look like a report published in a local English daily in Bahrain said that Indian Mahesh Lakhani, who works at a leading bank in Bahrain, has been detained by authorities for his role in a massive fraud uncovered at the bank.

It claims that the 37-year-old who manages the Retail Banking Anti-Money laundering division had helped launder several thousands of dinars through the Bahrain branch.

The report further says that Mr Lakhani denies the allegations and was upset about his image being tarnished.

The person/people behind the ‘prank’ has not spared even Bahrain’s Interior Ministry, using their name to make the report seem genuine.

The image of the report was circulated mainly on Facebook and WhatsApp on April 1. 

A source told DT News that the image with the ‘interesting’ report was widely shared by people who did not know Mr Lakhani.

“Many details about Mr Lakhani in the fake report are true like the name of the bank he works at, his position there, how many years he’s been in Bahrain etc,” said the source.

“Its just the fraud and arrest related details that are not true.

“Several people who saw the message on social media guessed that it was a prank, especially because it was April 1 and such fake news and messages are expected.

“We also knew there was no reporter named Raju Krishnan working with the newspaper. However the name sounded similar to another reporter there.

“There were also several other technical flaws in the report that makes it easy to know it’s a fake.

“But it seems like whoever did it knows Mahesh quite well as well as his job.

“Yet it was a totally uncalled for prank since it was defaming and involved legality for an expat working in a bank.”

Meanwhile Mr Lakhani said that he did not know who was behind the ‘prank’.

“It is entirely inappropriate that they used the template of the newspaper for this prank,” he told DT News.

“I understand it was widely shared and the article may have looked interesting and people shared it without knowing the truth behind it.

“It has gone out of hand and I would like to ask netizens to stop sharing it.”