The owner of “Baba Ka Dhaba”, Kanta Prasad, was shifted to a general ward in Safdarjung Hospital on Tuesday, after spending five days in the Intensive Care Unit. Doctors said the 81-year-old’s condition was stable. “He has been taken off the ventilator,” said a hospital spokesperson. Prasad was admitted to the hospital in critical condition last Thursday, after he allegedly attempted suicide. “He was unconscious and was on a ventilator,” a hospital spokesperson had said. “His wife informed police that he had been depressed for the last few days,” said a senior police officer. Prasad’s son, Karan, also told the police that his father consumed alcohol and sleeping pills. He had been depressed over his business for the last few days, said the family. Prasad’s wife, Badami Devi, said he had closed their new restaurant in Malviya Nagar, which opened in December last year, and went back to his old roadside stall as the cost of running the new establishment was around Rs 1 lakh, while the income was only around Rs 30,000. Last November, Prasad had lodged a cheating complaint against YouTuber Gaurav Wasan for alleged misappropriation of funds that were raised to help the old couple. Wasan had shot a widely-shared video of Prasad and his wife on October 7 last year. The video showed the teary-eyed couple talking about how they had no customers. After the video went viral, several people came to Prasad’s eatery and donated money. In November, Prasad had told The Indian Express that he had only received a cheque of Rs 2 lakh from Wasan and claimed that people came only to take selfies and his sales had not picked up due to the video.
