Beggar who had Rs 1 lakh in cash with him dies after ‘starving for days’, say officials

Bhavesh Patel, an emergency medical technician, and his team reached the spot and talked to the elderly man.
After a primary examination, he was taken to the Civil Hospital for treatment.

Speaking with The Indian Express, Bhavesh Patel said, “He was speaking Gujarati. He said that he stays in the Dhobi Talao area in Valsad. The shopkeeper told us that he had not been showing any movement for the last couple of days.

When we took him to the Civil Hospital, we found cash worth Rs 1.14 lakh. The cash contains 38 Indian currency notes of Rs 500, 83 notes of Rs 200, 537 currency notes of Rs 100, and other notes of Rs 20 and 10. All these notes were piled and wrapped in small plastic bags his sweater pocket, and his pant pockets. We handed over the cash to Valsad town police in front of the medical officer.”

Giving more details, Valsad Civil Hospital’s Dr Krishna Patel said, “When the patient was brought to us, he asked for tea. We figured he was hungry, and his blood sugar level had gone down. We inserted saline and started treatment. After one hour, he died. He had not eaten anything in the last couple of days.”

The identity of the beggar is yet to be confirmed. Police has taken custody of the cash, systematically arranged in bundles of notes of Rs 500, 200, and 100.

Valsad town police inspector BD Jitiya said, “We have taken his photos and sent our teams to different places in the Dhobi Talao area to know his identity but nobody knew him. We have recorded the incident of death. The postmortem report says that he died due to hunger.”

“We also took the statement of the shopkeeper who reported about the man,” he added.