Kanta Prasad, the owner of popular eatery Baba Ka Dhaba’ in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar, has filed a complaint against Instagram influencer Gaurav Wasan for misappropriation of funds, police said on Sunday.
After some YouTubers alleged he had received Rs 20-25 lakh, Wasan denied it and said he had initiated legal action against them.
Prasad (80) was in the news after a video of him tearfully recounting the desperation of the months since the lockdown was shared widely across social media platforms recently.
Prasad’s story had come to light when Wasan captured the eatery owner breaking down as he talked about his struggles in a video shared on the YouTuber’s social media account.
A day after the video, #Babakadhaba was trending on Twitter and the food joint was flooded with more customers than it had seen in 30 years of being in business, PTI reported.
In his complaint to police, Prasad said Wasan shot his video and posted it online and convinced the public on social media to donate money to the eatery owner.
He further alleged that Wasan “intentionally and deliberately shared only his and his family/friends bank details and mobile numbers with the donors and collected huge amount of donation through different mode of payments i.e bank account/wallets without providing any information to the complainant”.
The owner of the food joint also accused the YouTuber of not providing details of the financial transactions to him.
Indian Express reported:
Wasan denied the allegations and said he transferred all the money into Prasad’s account: “When I shot the video, I didn’t know it would become this big. I didn’t want people to harass Baba (Prasad) so I shared my bank details…”
Wasan shared three receipts of the transactions, all dated October 27 — two cheques of Rs 1,00,000 and Rs 2,33,000 and one receipt of bank payment of Rs 45,000. He said this was the amount of money collected in the three days. Wasan also put up a bank statement on Facebook in which the total money credited in the three days is around Rs 3.5 lakh. Asked about the other two transactions, Prasad said he hasn’t been able to check his account as he doesn’t carry his phone.
“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,” Atul Kumar Thakur, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), said.
(With PTI inputs)