Following the tears-inducing story of an elderly couple who sold Indian food with great difficulties for a livelihood in Delhi, the owner of the stall, or ‘baba’ as he is famously called now, has filed a complaint against the man who shot brought them from rags to riches by sharing their story on social media. The change in the story from having a heart-touching climax to a greedy and perplexing ending is all in the FIR lodged by the baba of “Baba ka Dhaba”.
Kanta Prasad a.k.a the Baba has held Gaurav Wasan, the food blogger who found the Dhaba and made the story viral overnight fetching the old couple thousands of donations from over the world, guilty for allegedly scheming him.
The 80-year-old man told NDTV that Mr. Wasan has cheated him as he collected donations in his own name and provided a cheque with an amount of “only Rs.2,33,677”, which he “isn’t sure will get credited into his account or not”. He claimed Mr. Wasan has received Rs.20 lakhs in the form of donations but hasn’t transferred it to him.
“He called for donations in the name of his wife, brother, and himself. He gave us a cheque of only ₹ 2,33,677. I have deposited the cheque; I don’t know if the money will be credited. They tell me I got 20 lakh but where is the money,” Kanta Prasad said posing behind sunglasses.
According to sources, Mr. Wasan has often visited the Dhaba after his post became viral and fetched a solid hope of a livelihood for the couple. The blogger was adamant to prove his innocence with all his bank account statements on Monday morning to defend the allegations thrown by the baba.
He had gone to the bank to deposit more donations On October 8th received for the elderly man and his wife but couldn’t do so as the bank had sealed his account for reaching the deposit limit of Rs.20 lakh. Mr. Wasan said he then requested people to stop making any further donations as they had received enough already.
Showing his bank account statement, Mr. Wasan told NDTV, “I always promote street food of India. I made a viral video that brought them so much help. Every person used to say you are helping them so much. Now the same people are calling me a fraud. I have all the account details here, I have been forced to stoop to this level,” as he has been receiving hate on social media for deceiving the “poor baba” without any evidence.
He has now uploaded his bank receipts on Facebook, which show 3 transactions dated October 27th, two cheques of Rs.1,00,000, and Rs.2,33,000 and a transfer of Rs.45,000.
Totally the amount, Mr. Wasan said that he has given Rs.3.78 lakh out of the Rs.4.4 lakh he received through donations, while a part of it belonged to him.
Kanta Prasad, 80, had shot to fame after a video of him tearfully recounting the desperation of the months since the lockdown was shared widely across social media platforms recently.
The 80-year-old man had risen to stardom after his post got viral overnight gaining him thousands of orders. Customers could be seen queuing in front of the stall for buying his food priced for about Rs.30-Rs.50 per plate.
Although in the video prior to his overnight fame he tearfully said that he and his wife barely survived as they could hardly earn anything, Kanta Prasad later claimed to the Indian Express he used to earn a shocking Rs.10,000 per day that has now come down to Rs.3000-Rs.5000 as people come only for clicking selfies and not to buy food at baba ka Dhaba.
His spectacular change of fate through the post made Mr. Wasan bring to light other lesser-known stalls as well that needed the support of netizens and the world.
“We received the complaint yesterday and are enquiring into it,” DCP Atul Kumar Thakur said. There hasn’t been any registration of an FIR until now.
