Chennai: There was high drama at the Kumarakottam Murugan temple in Kancheepuram on Tuesday after a Russian tourist sat with the destitute outside the temple and sought alms from the public. Curious people started enquiring of the man as to what he was doing there and since all their queries were met with only a gesture asking them to put some money in his cap, they decided to inform the police. A team from the Siva Kanchi police station reached the temple and questioned the man and found out that he was a research student who had simply exhausted all his money.

Police identified him as Evangelin Berngowe, a 32-year-old research student from Russia. He had arrived in India on September 8 on a tourist visa and after touring places in North India, Berngowe had reached Kancheepuram by bus from Bengaluru, police said. Police investigations revealed that he had spent all his money and the balance in his mobile phone. Worse, he had forgotten the PIN number of his debit card. After searching in vain for fellow Russian tourists across the temple town, he finally sat down at a temple and began to seek alms.

“We checked his travel documents, passport and visa. All documents are perfectly valid. He had spent all his money and was not sure how to reach Chennai,” a police officer said. The Siva Kanchi police gave him Rs 500 and put him on a suburban train to Chennai. Police asked the man to get down at Egmore and take an autorickshaw to the Russian embassy in the City.