Hoshiarpur: The words 'rich' and 'beggar' usually don't go together. But there exists a beggar in Punjab who was arrested by the police for being 'rich'.
The beggar, identified as Md. Sharif, is a resident of Jammu and Kashmir and came to Hoshiarpur looking for work. After struggling for years and not finding employment he had to beg for a livelihood.
The incident took place at Punjab's Hosiyarpur, when the beggar, Sharif, went to Congress leader Sarita Sharma's house begging for money.
As per the police, the beggar asked Sharma for Rs 500 and kept persisting.
Suspecting Sharif's intentions, Sharma sought his Aadhar card, which he failed to produce. It was only when the Congress leader's husband frisked him, he found that the beggar had a gun and Rs 30,000 cash in his side pockets.
The Sharmas' then handed over Sharif to the Punjab police.
The police, after interrogating Sharif, said, "After receiving a complaint about him we interrogated and later arrested him. We recovered a gun from one of his pockets, around Rs 30,000 cash and bank receipts worth Rs 79,600 from his other pockets."
This is not the first such instance where a beggar has, in fact, turned out to be 'rich'.
In 2015, Bharat Jain - apparently India's richest beggar hit the headlines. He used to earn Rs 70,000 to 80,000 per month by begging at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (known as CST) or Azad Maidan. He had also bought a personal flat worth Rs 80 lakh in Mumbai.
In the same year, another beggar — Krishna Kumar Gite — attracted a lot of attention. His income was estimated to be between Rs 40,000 and 50,000 per month. He also owned a personal flat at Nala Sopara, Mumbai.
Also Read: Septuagenarian beggar donates Rs 8 lakh to temple in Vijayawada
