Crorepati beggar in Kuwait arrested for harassing commuters

Dubai: A foreigner, having 500,000 Kuwaiti Dinar (over Rs 10 crore) in his bank account, has been arrested by Kuwait police for allegedly begging.

The non-Kuwaiti beggar was held near a mosque in capital Kuwait City and remanded in custody.

"Servicemen were patrolling the area when they saw a man standing near a mosque and begging for money, telling worshipers that he badly needed cash and that he had no home," Khaleej time quoted security sources as saying to Kuwaiti daily Al Rai.

"He was immediately arrested as he was breaking the law and was taken to Al Ahmadi police station where an investigation found that he had a bank account in a local bank worth more than 500,000 Kuwaiti Dinar (over Rs 10 crore)," the sources added.

Kuwait, like fellow members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -- Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- does not allow begging and has pledged zero-tolerance towards begging for money, particularly during the month of Ramadan when people, both locals and foreigners, have a stronger tendency to donate money and to engage in acts of charity.

In April, Kuwait deported 22 beggars, including Asians, for harassing people.

Begging has turned into a lucrative activity for several foreigners in the Gulf, media reports have said.

A spokesperson for the social affairs ministry in Saudi Arabia said that foreigners made up around 85 per cent of all the beggars while the others were Saudi citizens.

In 2012, police in Kuwait City arrested an expatriate who disguised himself as a woman to beg for money.