Indore’s millionaire beggar: owner of three houses, expensive cars and three autos, gives loans on interest to businessmen

Indore, 19 January. The administration in Indore has rescued a 50-year-old beggar suffering from leprosy during an anti-beggary campaign and it has been preliminary revealed that he owns properties worth lakhs of rupees, including three houses, one car and three auto rickshaws. Officials gave this information on Monday. The administration has put a legal ban on taking as well as giving alms and buying any goods from beggars in Indore and claims that the city is ‘beggar-free’.

Women and Child Development Department official Dinesh Mishra said that on the information of common people, a leprosy patient has been rescued from Sarafa area to free him from beggary. Mishra is the nodal officer of the beggary eradication campaign. He said, “We have learned that this person owns three permanent houses. These include a building with three floors. Apart from this, he has three auto rickshaws which he has given on rent.”

According to Dinesh Mishra, this person also has a car in which he goes to beg and for this he has hired a driver. He told, “This person suffering from leprosy begs sitting on a cart that is dragged with the help of wheels.” According to Mishra, this person has been doing begging since the year 2021-22 and it has also been revealed that he has lent four to five lakh rupees to people in the bullion sector from which he collects daily interest.

“He earns Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 every day from this interest. Apart from this, he gets Rs 400 to Rs 500 as alms every day,” he said. According to Mishra, this person has been kept in a shelter home. District Magistrate Shivam Verma said that Indore is a ‘beggar-free city’ and on receiving information about beggary, a campaign is run to rehabilitate beggars.

He said that the administration has received preliminary information about the properties of the person rescued from beggary in Sarafa area and after examining the facts, steps will be taken as per appropriate legal provisions. Rupali Jain, president of ‘Pravesh’, an NGO working in the field of eradication of beggary, said that the case of this person suffering from leprosy should be looked at from a humanitarian perspective as he has not made his alleged wealth worth lakhs of rupees by begging.

He told that this person used to work as a house construction mason a few years ago, but after severe damage to his fingers and legs due to leprosy, he could not continue this work and after becoming a victim of social and family discrimination, he started begging at night near the famous Chaat-Chowpatty of Sarafa area. Jain said, “We convinced this man twice in the last four years to stop begging. He had given up begging for some time, but later he started begging again.”