New Delhi: Demonetisation, it turns out, is the new leveller. And in one case, a billionaire had to be at the mercy of, well, a beggar.
The story that News18 can vouch for begins from a sprawling farmhouse in the tony Chattarpur in New Delhi and ends at the Okulipuram slum in Bengaluru. The protagonist, a billionaire with varied interests, is a member of three elite clubs in New Delhi – Delhi Gymkhana, DDCA and the Golf Club.
But as he awoke Wednesday morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a cash-less pauper.
“See, I have this factory in Bengaluru that I have leased out. There was some maintenance work going on for which the factory was shut. I needed to pay the labourers Rs 90,000, get it done within a day or two, and hand it over to the lessors by Friday,” says the baron (as we will call him from here on).
The lessees were a European MNC, who insisted the factory should be reopened on Friday as promised. That just a few hours ago the prime minister of the country had a special televised address where he declared currency notes of denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 as invalid didn’t cut much ice with the Europeans.
“I have crores lying in my various bank accounts, but all I had at hand were a few notes of Rs 100 apart from the now worthless papers of Rs 500 and Rs 1000,” the baron said.
So our man booked a ticket – business class – to Bengaluru using his credit card on Wednesday.
“I walked the 10 km distance between my factory and house in Bengaluru as I had no money to hire a cab and the app-based cabs refused plastic money saying they wanted only cash,” he said.
He still needed to raise Rs 90,000 in cash so that he could stick to his commitment. “But despite frantic calls to my rich friends I could not arrange the needed cash,” the baron said.
The idea then first came as a joke cracked by one of his friends, which suddenly began to look like a far-fetched, yet, alluring option. Why not approach those with easy change always, even if it be a beggar?
The baron had a friend who happened to be son of a top cop. He put him in touch with the head of a city-based begging racket.
“The local police constables took me to him. He was begging in the subway between Majestic bus stand and Bengaluru Central railway station. He was smelling like hell and threw a lot of attitude even in front of the policemen,” the Baron reminisces.
After a few rounds of pleading, the ‘begging don’ agreed to spare Rs 90,000 – for Rs 2.5 lakhs in the old Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denominations.
“I was relieved and followed him to a nearby slum by foot,” says the baron who despite a childhood spent in Bengaluru had never set foot in the dingy lanes of Okulipuram slum before.
He got that desperately needed Rs 90,000 – in denominations of 5,10,20,50 and 100 notes.
“Most of the notes were soiled. But I was so happy to lay my hands on them. I literally jumped with joy and rushed towards my car which was parked a km away. Never before in my life had money made me so happy,” he says, with a chuckle, talking from his Delhi farm house valued at several dozen crores.
The baron chose to remain anonymous because of the questionable legality of the transaction.
After listening to the baron’s story, News18 independently contacted a few from the “begging racket” in Bengaluru who told this reporter that even the richest of the rich are knocking at their doors for a few thousand rupees in the precious 50s and 100s.
For instance, a rich business family from Meerut had to resort to the same route to raise Rs 5 lakh in small denominations for a wedding engagement in Bengaluru on Thursday. “We paid them Rs 10 lakh for that money. Our annual turnover is over Rs 300 crore. But we did not have even one lakh in small denominations” said that exasperated businessman.
If the same cash crunch continues for a week, even the beggars might run out of cash and the rich and mighty might start begging on the streets. Literally!
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