Nadeem death & crowdfunding row: Don’t donate to people asking money on my son’s name, says bereaved father (video)
Hours after the AC compressor blast incident in Tikona Park on Thursday afternoon, a message started circulating on the social media for raising fund.
The message read: “At least six people sustained injuries due to an explosion at the Waffle Mania Cafe near Tiknona Park…There were six workers inside the café when the incident took place. Two victims were critically injured and sadly we lost both of them to the blast. The remaining 4 are being treated in ICU. The families of the victims (workers earning bare minimum to survive) will be unable to bear the expense incurred on their treatment. We have started this fund raiser in a hope to cover at least half the amount of the total hospital expense. The owner has lost all he possessed in a day, loss of innocent lives tops the list. Kindly come forward to help him get his workers treated.”
Also the message carried bank details where to pay.
[Till now only death of one people has been officially confirmed.]
After a resident forwarded this message to the OT, the portal approached Nadeem’s father to find out about the crowdfunding details. He was taken aback and said he has not approached anybody to raise funds for his son. “I don’t know what all is going on and whoever is doing this is doing a mischief and doing it without my approval,” he said.
A resident and activist Syed Fouzul said this is nothing but a fraud and how can somebody do this crowdfunding without taking endorsement from the family. He said when the youth and his team was confronted they came up with weird arguments. Fouzul said after he raise the issue and confronted the team he got a call in which somebody told him to better concentrate on his political career that to get involved in such issues.
Fouzul is the same local leader whose hard work had stopped a mandir in Noor Nagar from being occupied by land sharks in Okhla.
Nadeem father said nobody has come to meet him and condole his son’s death and hence nobody has the right to raise money in the name of his son. It is not known how much money has been raised till now but a fundraising watcher said it appears that a good amount has been raised till now based on another message by the team which read: “Prefer bank transfer we have exceeded the UPI limit. Alternate UPIs.”
He said at time of tragedy there are many people who trying to raise money.
After the OT uploaded the video, it received a message most probably from the fundraising team.
“Assalaam alaikum. This is regarding your video featuring Nadeem’s father. The video and many messages circulating around claims that we are fraudsters. This text is to clear the air.
“Our only aim was to hand over the collected sum to the families of all the victims. We can provide you with all the proofs you require. This was not a scam or a fraud. We request you to please do an authenticity check before posting anything in the public. This has harmed the reputation of the person who started the funding campaign. We understand what the family went through, but our only aim was to help,” read the message.
Some residents said even if the team’s intention is right they should have taken permission from Nadeem’s father and others before raising the money. How much has the team given to Nadeem’s father as we all know nothing, said another resident.
