Indore’s richest beggar? Man picked up from street turns out to be crorepati; owns houses, cars, runs money-lending racket

INDORE: Mission "Beggar-free Indore" was meant to wean destitute off the streets. Instead, it uncovered one who had been minting crores sitting on a sliding iron cart with ball-bearing wheels.

Physically disabled Mangilal has been a familiar face in the city's landmark Sarafa Bazaar neighbourhood for years. He never "begged", at least not overtly. He would sit in a corner or move about wearing a backpack, his hands inside a pair of shoes to push himself along.





Moved by the sight, a common one in almost every Indian city, passers-by would press cash or coins into his palm. A typical day's collection totalled between Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

When a rescue team from MP's women and child development department picked up Mangilal recently and told him he would be rehabilitated, the truth tumbled out.

Mangilal told nodal officer Dinesh Mishra he owns a three-storey house in Bhagat Singh Nagar, a 600sq ft home in Shiv Nagar and a one-bedroom flat in Alwasa that he received through Red Cross Society under the PMAY scheme on grounds of his disability. He also owns three auto-rickshaws, all of which he rents out, and a Swift Dzire car with a driver on his payroll.

Physically disabled Mangilal also puts the "alms" he receives to work in a high-interest money-lending operation focused on small jewellery businesses in Sarafa Bazaar. He collects daily or weekly interest from those he lends money to.

"He has given us an idea of how much money he has, but we are still to arrive at the exact figure. We are probing all his sources of income and properties in his name," Mishra said.

Officials have compiled a list of Mangilal's bank accounts and other cash holdings for verification on Monday. He will be produced before the district collector to answer for obtaining a PMAY house despite owning property. District programme officer Rajnish Sinha confirmed that Mangilal owns what he described as "significant property". "He is also involved in usury, which is a crime. Action will be taken against those who promote begging." Mangilal currently lives in the Alwasa flat with his parents. His two brothers live separately.

The campaign to remove beggars from Indore's streets started in Feb 2024. Various agencies involved in the exercise have identified 6,500 beggars in just about two years and counselled 4,500 of them into working for a living through state-run initiatives. Around 1,600 "rescued" beggars have been shifted to an ashram in Ujjain. The programme has also helped enrol 172 children in schools.