Demonetisation: How a Delhi billionaire went 'begging' for cash in Bengaluru

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 with in 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.Read the complete story atnews18.com