Bhubaneswar: He spent his life in an abandoned hospital quarter, sleeping on a cot left behind by some patient’s relative and spending just Rs 5 a day on food.
However, after Dambaru Gorada died of a heart failure at the District Headquarters Hospital at Malkangiri recently, nearly Rs 1 crore in cash and gold was discovered among his meagre possessions. Gorada was a bachelor with no known relative. Authorities are now wondering what to do with the stash.
Gorada worked at the Malkangiri hospital where he died. Colleagues remember him as a miser who would not even wash at home to avoid spending money on water. He would not even pay for electricity and used candles for the few hours after dark before he fell asleep.
“He occupied and old, abandoned quarter near the old hospital building. The house was in dilapidated condition. The cot that he slept on must have been used by some someone to carry a patient to the hospital. It was in a sorry state. There were a few burnt candles in the room. However, what surprised us was the cash found and ornaments found inside the house. Cash was hidden nearly everywhere. Some of the currency notes were old and had been nibbled by rats,” a police official said.
A colleague said that Gorada used to pay Rs 5 for a meal from the hospital’s cheap canteen and share it for lunch and dinner. He was also in the business of lending money to people who mortgaged their ornaments.
“After he died, Rs 27,000 was found in his pocket. The total amount recovered is nearly Rs 1 crore. Now the problem is to trace his next of kin. Nobody seems to know any relative of his,” the official added.
