Once a lotus-eater, now leads life of a beggar

Bahrain

The dramatic downfall of a former businessman in Manama to penury reverberates the extreme aftermath of his wrongdoings. Indian national Panchal Rasikkumar ended up in poverty after cheating his sponsor and failing to pay the bills for his extravagant lifestyle.

 The 56-year-old, who is currently living as a beggar in Manama, had earlier blamed his sponsor for losing all his fortunes. However, in a meeting with DT News earlier this week, he admitted to fraud against his sponsor amidst allegations that he had cheated the sponsor to the tune of BD 42,000. 

“Yes.. financially I have done…," he confessed in a choking voice, but without disclosing any details. Panchal also admitted that he invested huge sums of money in the apartment where he lived in. "I had spent thousands of dinars just for furnishing the apartment.”

According to official records, he currently faces a travel ban for failing to pay an amount of over BD 3,000 to his landlord and BD 1,000 to a bank. 

 When contacted, Panchal's former sponsor denied the allegations against him and said they were concocted to evoke pity.

 "We have never abused him or taken advantage of him. He recounted the story in such a way that attracts sympathy from those who are ready to help. Our late father used to trust him, and we also trusted him blindly for a very long time. Our father, before he died, asked us to take care of him. So we did everything we can to honour his wish," he explained.

 "The painting business is one of the many business establishments we run. After my father’s demise, my brother and I have been managing those businesses along with our own individual businesses. Since we were busy with other entrepreneurships, we included Panchal in the partnership for the painting business. We used to give him signed blank cheques for business purchases. But he used the cheques for personal gains,” the sponsor said.

 According to him, people from the paint supplier company had connived with Panchal.

“Those employees from the supplier company would supply paints to him on the sly. The authorized signatory was absent. There were not even local purchase orders sent to them, but Panchal kept receiving the paints and he sold it to keep the money for himself. This resulted in a long court battle between our company and the supplier company," he elaborated.

 The sponsor said Panchal used the money for his extravagant lifestyle and rented a very expensive apartment. He was a drunkard too. He used a good chunk of the money for his daughter’s pilot training in America. “Interestingly, the flying school closed down and ended up cheating him. He squandered the money on other things as well.”

The sponsor’s company had lodged a case against him for embezzlement of money. But later they withdrew it upon some social workers’ request.

“Our mother felt sympathy for him and asked us to let him leave for India and gave him BD 500. But he still tried to cheat us," he said.

However, the sponsor has no intention to hinder his exit from Bahrain. “I have withdrawn all my cases against him. But he has other cases against him because of the choices he made.”

 Meanwhile, social workers have pledged to continue helping him regardless of what he might have done in the past.

"We just want to send him to India as soon as possible so that he can die peacefully," a social worker commented.

 Meanwhile, the Indian Embassy has confirmed the travel ban. “He has travel ban for two cases. One case is for BD 1,000 from a bank for his credit card and loans. The other is for BD 3,000 from his land lord for his outstanding flat rents," Indian Embassy Second Secretary Anand Prakash informed.