A Nazi, who had killed 12,000 Jews and was on the run for the past 50 years, finally caught on the Karnataka-Goa border. The story could not get bigger and the news was flying all over with each journalist spinning every little detail he managed to get.

However, the happiness was short-lived and the story turned out to be a hoax.

The dailies reported that Johann Bach, the 88-year old Nazi war criminal, was tracked down in the jungles of Khanapur in Belgaum. He was a war criminal wanted for the massacre of about 12,000 Jews during Hitler's [Images] regime.

A Karnataka police official told rediff.com that the entire story was a hoax and it had been floated by a couple of journalists in Goa [Images]. The email was sent from Goa to some prominent reporters, who lapped up the story without verifying the exact details.

Some reporters even discussed the story among themselves and each one gave his own spin to the story, thus making the reader believe it was true.

The Karnataka and Goa police had repeatedly maintained that there was no such information and all efforts by them to track down the real story went in vain.

On Monday afternoon, some cops in Karnataka had given up on the story and had started to claim that it was a hoax. Towards the evening, it was confirmed that the news regarding the Nazi was a hoax and was the handiwork of few journalists in Goa.

Interestingly, the dailies quote a detective agency Perus Narkp, which had helped capture the 88 year man at Belgaum. Churumuri.com states "Bach" is obviously a bastardisation of Johann Sebastian Bach, with the piano thrown in for good measure. "Perus Narkp" is an anagram of "Super Prank".

A wing of the Karnataka police had even sought for a report on the incident. A senior officer said that the field staff obviously did not do his work as expected and came back with a report stating that it was true.

Unable to verify the truth behind the story, he decided to utilize the services of a couple of journalists, who had been writing the story. Based on whatever details he received from them, he put out a report and handed it over to the police.