Malayalam actor Rajith Menon is in the news, and not for any new blockbuster releases. It seems the actor fell prey to a “fake” Rs 500 note on Monday
It seems an unidentified person paid Rs 500, apparently in the form of a new currency note, at the restaurant Swadh in Thrissur, which Rajith Menon owns. Only, the Rs 500 note was nothing but a color photocopy of an actual note.
While the staff did not suspect any foul play when they accepted it, they found out that it was fake when a nearby petrol pump refused to accept the note.
It was only when they got to the bank, that they realised that the note was not an artful fake but a simple colour photocopy.
Rajith finally approached the Mannuthy police later in the day, but simply left the note with the police without filing a police complaint.
An officer at the police station told The News Minute that the actor walked into the station a little after 4pm on Monday.
"He said he has informed the media about the incident and left the note here, but did not register any complaint. Since it is not a case of counterfeit currency (as the note was a simple photocopy), we cannot carry out any probe on it in the absence of a complaint. Even the hotel staff could not identify the person who gave the photostat of the note. We just left it at that," the officer said.
However, the actor did make a Facebook video to "educate" the public on how to avoid being duped in the same way. Narrating his ordeal, he displayed both the "photostat" note and an original note and proceeded to compare the differences between the two.
This was not before he praised the central government for its clever move to fight black money and also prominently mentioned the name of his restaurant. After all, any publicity is good publicity!