A post is being shared on social media accompanied by a photo of Bharath Jain, a wealthy beggar from India, claiming that he is an alumnus of IIM Calcutta. Allegedly, Bharath runs a begging empire that constitutes around 18000 beggars, and the post’s description also claims that he is expanding his business Internationally. Lets face check this claim through this article.
Claim: Bharath Jain, one of the wealthiest beggars in India, is an IIM Calcutta graduate who runs a colossal begging empire.
Fact: Although media reports state that Bharath Jain is one of the wealthiest beggars in India, earning around 60-70k per month, he reportedly did not have any formal education. None of the media reports that covered his story mentioned anything about him being a graduate of IIM Calcutta. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
To learn more details about Bharath Jain, we performed a keyword search on the internet, which led us to many news reports (here, here, and here) about him, which contained the photo identical to the one in the viral post.
In July 2023, Financial Express reported that Bharath Jain’s income’..ranges between Rs. 60,000 and Rs. 75,000..’, and the report further states that Bharath did not pursue formal education.
Media reports that covered the story mention that he owns a flat worth Rs. 1.2 crores and has a net worth of Rs. 7.5 crores but none of them state that he is an IIM Calcutta graduate and runs a begging empire and is expanding overseas, which is being claimed in the viral post. Since the media reports contradict the claims made in the viral post, we could conclude that the viral post cooked up version of Bharath Jain’s story.
To sum up, there is no evidence online to prove that Bharath Jain is a kingpin of a begging empire in India and is an IIM Calcutta graduate.
