Meet this lakhpati beggar from Andhra

Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, June 3

Beggars are no choosers does not hold true for this-Kurnool based beggar who is literally a “lakhpati”. The fact came to light when an Andhra Pradesh based NGO forcibly tried to give Chinna Narasimhulu a makeover as part of a clean-up drive. To their surprise the beggar had over Rs 2 lakh in cash on his person.

Narasimhulu has been begging near a mosque in Dhone town of Andhra Pradesh and had accumulated Rs 2,04,459 over a period of time. Members of the Dronachalam Seva Samithi, a NGO discovered the money when they tried to give him new clothes after a bath and a haircut.

According to a Samithi member A. Madhu the 58-year-old beggar had bundles of currency notes in the pockets of 14 shirts. He had Rs 77,000 in old currency notes he did not know were invalidated by demonetisation in 2016.

The NGO informed the local police about the money found with the beggar.

Dhone Circle Inspector Subramanyam said their inquiries revealed that Chinna Narasimhulu alias Seenu is a native of the Muneppagutta colony in Mahabubnagar in neighbouring Telangana. He told the police that he separated from the family about 24 years ago. He had a wife and a daughter who had migrated to Bengaluru for work.

He has been begging outside the local masjid for the past 16 years. He told the police that he saved the money for his daughter in the hope that he would meet her one day. The police official shifted him to an old age home in Kadapa and asked the NGO to open a bank account in Seenu’s name and deposit the money.

The Done police have got in touch with their Mahabubnagar counterparts to trace Seenu’s family.