An enviable lineage and a degree from the prestigious IIT could not stop Prafulla Chiplunkar, grandson of freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, from leading a life of desolation and penury before ending up as a beggar at Sarasbaugh here.

Fifty-seven-year-old Prafulla, an IIT-Delhi graduate in chemical engineering, is also the great grandson of freedom fighter and Marathi litterateur Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, fell to bad times in 1980s following an accident in the company at Palampur where he was employed. Having suffered severe burn injuries, subsequent hospitalisation took away his job.

Married to a Thai girl and blessed with a son, bad financial condition after the accident forced Prafulla to ask his family to move to Thailand. The news of his wife and son’s death in a car accident in 2002 shattered him completely and the ensuing depression led him astray. Cut off from relatives for marrying a Thai girl, Prafulla shied away from seeking help from them. He began working as a watchman in a housing society and also took up other menial jobs to survive before taking recourse to begging two years ago.

However, his habit of reading English newspapers and magazines aroused curiosity and two vendors informed the local media about him.

“I verified his antecedents and when sure, informed local people who regarded Veer Savarkar as a great freedom fighter,” Moreshwar Joshi, a journalist, said.

He was taken by Sanjay Dhongade, a social worker, to his home on Saturday. Joshi said even a woman from Delhi called up offering to look after him. “The woman said she was employed as a maid in Chiplunkar’s house decades ago. Now that he has fallen upon bad times, I am ready to discharge my responsibility as a daughter towards him. Today we are in a position to take care of his needs,” the woman told mediapersons here.