The Baba Ka Dhaba story which was meant to be a story of hope and kindness has now been marred with allegations of fraud as Kanta Prasad, owner of Baba Ka Dhaba has filed a complaint against influencer Gaurav Wasan for misappropriation of funds.
In an unexpected twist to the heartwarming story of Baba Ka Dhaba, the man who brought the street vendors to the forefront which grabbed national headlines, Gaurav Wasan has been accused of misappropriation of funds by the owner of the Dhaba.
Prasad’s despair had come to light when Wasan captured the eatery owner sobbing as he talked about his struggles amidst the pandemic.
The video quickly went viral where Wasan urged the people to donate money to help the owners of the Dhaba. Now, Prasad has accused Wasan of “intentionally and deliberately shared only his and his family/friends bank details and mobile numbers with the donors and collected a huge amount of donation through different mode of payments i.e bank account/wallets without providing any information to the complainant.”
Additionally, Wasan has also been accused of not providing details of the financial transactions to Prasad. “We received the complaint yesterday at the Malviya Nagar Police Station and the matter is being probed. No FIR has been registered yet in the case,” said Atul Kumar Thakur, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South).
The controversy erupted after another YouTuber, Lakshay Chaudhary created a video accusing Wasan of online scam where he alleged that while Wasan had collected huge sums of money in the name of donations to Baba Ka Dhaba, he had not passed on the donations to the owners of the eatery.
Meanwhile, Wasan has denied all the allegations and has uploaded bank transactions as proof of his innocence.
The allegations, if found true, represent the worst of humanity as Wasan has no right to seek a personal cut for his good samaritan work. Every single penny which has been transferred to Wasan’s account must be accounted for and handed over to the owners of the eatery as the people of the nation donated their hard-earned money for the betterment of the poor and old couple.
Unfortunately, Prasad and his wife are now not only embroiled in a war between two influencers but will also have to fight for their money legally, should things escalate. To make things the footfalls at the stall too have fallen drastically. “I don’t get a lot of customers now; most people come here to take selfies… Earlier I was earning over Rs 10,000 per day, now it’s Rs 3,000-Rs 5,000,” said Prasad.
On Kanta Prasad (owner of Baba ka Dhaba) told a media organization, “I don’t get a lot of customers now; most people come here to take selfies… Earlier I was earning over Rs 10,000 per day, now it’s Rs 3,000-Rs 5,000." #BabaKaDhabha#Babakadhabascamhttps://t.co/53gitRT0qw
— Deccan Chronicle (@DeccanChronicle) November 2, 2020
The thirst to become instantly popular or showing fake compassion by clicking selfies has unfortunately proved to be the undoing of the heartwarming tale. In the end, the fairytale story indeed went down as too good to be true with the country being served a rude reality check.