Bhajia seller-turned usurer fleeced people to build empire

SURAT: He was famous for his tea and mouth-watering hot bhajias at Udhana’s road number-3 here around 31 years ago. Within a decade, he shut his tea and bhajia stall and entered financing business. Kishore Mangal Bhajiawala, Surat’s one-time tea and bhajiawala, is now a crorepati financier with a net worth of around Rs1,300 crore.
Bhajiawala would sell tea for Re1 and hot bhajias for Rs20 per kilogram before he turned a small-time financier.
His strategy was simple: he would lend money against property, vehicles, gold and silver ornaments at 20 per cent interest per month and 45 per cent interest per annum.
His customers never knew that the interest amount would become bigger than the principal lent by Bhajiawala.
He would cheat his customers by taking their power of attorney and seizing gold and valuable ornaments, using muscle power.
A woman victim, who runs a beauty parlour in Udhana, alleged that her husband had taken Rs60 lakh on interest from Bhajiawala by depositing documents of his factory in Udhana worth Rs1 crore, some few years ago. The money was paid by the victim’s husband, but Bhajiawala showed him the figure of interest on the finance taken, which remained unpaid.
Bhajiawala used muscle power to get the factory registered in his name. The victim’s husband suffered a heart attack and died, leaving her and two kids behind.
“Soon, I am going to lodge a police complaint against Bhajiawala. He has ruined our family,” the woman said.
Bhajiawala constructed Jalaram Temple in Udhana a couple of years ago. He would donate money in front of the devotees only to take home all the donations at the end of the month, sources said. The pujari of the temple was paid a meager salary every month for performing puja.
The I-T sleuths have recovered a personal diary of Bhajiawala wherein he has used a code language. There are many names written in the code language.
Bhajiawala’s finance business was running successfully and he is believed to have lent over Rs300 crore to his customers.
The I-T sleuths also found property documents of scores of people financed by Bhajiawala.