R Madhavan takes strong stand on Baba ka Dhaba cheating claim; willing to be proved wrong

Kanta Prasad, the owner of popular eatery Baba Ka Dhaba' in south Delhi's Malviya Nagar, filed a complaint against Instagram influencer and YouTuber Gaurav Wasan for misappropriation of funds on Saturday. Reacting to the development, actor R Madhavan on Monday said that this is the kind of thing that gives people "a reason not to do good". Calling it "unacceptable", he said faith will be restored if the people who committed the alleged fraud are caught and punished. 

Tagging the official account of Delhi Police, the actor said, "Full faith in you"

Madhavan also said that he "agrees wholeheartedly that Gaurav Wasan has indeed done awesome work by highlighting the old couple's plight. If this is a false allegation then we will and should acknowledge and applaud him even more and I will. A case has been filed and someone is up to some mischief."

"and we need to establish who, so that the good people who came to do good, do not feel taken for a ride and stop doing this altogether. NO social media trial here pls... let the Delhi police get to the bottom of this. We all want to continue to do good," he said in another tweet. 

'No FIR has been registered yet'

According to Delhi Police, Kantra Prasad, the owner of the eatery, in his complaint 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 a 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. "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 on Sunday.

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. Ironically, Prasad's despair 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.

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After the video went viral, 'Baba ka Dhaba' was the cynosure of many eyes across the country, including celebs from showbiz who posted appeals asking people to go there and get themselves a meal. A day after the heartbreaking 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.

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Gaurav Wasan denies allegations

According to media reports, Wasan has denied the allegations and said that he transferred all the money into Kanta 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…”

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Earlier, Gaurav Wasan also shared his bank statements on Facebook through his official page Swaad. It shows the detailed statement of all donors. This came after another YouTuber Lakshya Chaudhary accused Wasan of seeking donations to help the elderly couple during COVID-19, but not transferring the money to Kanta Prasad, calling it an online scam.

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