Rats! Restaurant in viral video was wrongly identified

Rats! Restaurant in viral video was wrongly identified

On Tuesday night, a customer posted a video of a rat nibbling on food in a display cabinet on the Facebook page of a restaurant he thought belonged to Mr Saravanan.

But the 30-year-old knew it was a case of mistaken identity and did not think much of it.

He contacted the customer privately and deleted the post.

But when he continued receiving WhatsApp messages and calls from other customers, he realised he had a problem on his hands.

Mr Saravanan runs Sangeetha Bhavan with his father at Kitchener Road. It sells Indian and Pakistani vegetarian food.

The video of the rat began circulating via WhatsApp.

But the restaurant in the video is Sangeetha Vegetarian Restaurant, which has outlets in India, Malaysia and Hong Kong. It does not have outlets in Singapore.

Mr Saravanan said one woman even called to say she had notified the National Environment Agency (NEA).

Sangeetha Bhavan clarified on Facebook yesterday that the logo, shop name and layouts were all different. Plus, Sangeetha Bhavan neither has a display case nor does it sell sweets.

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/sangeethabhavanrestaurant/posts/1201171113331634[/embed]

The New Paper visited Sangeetha Bhavan yesterday afternoon and saw two NEA officers there.

Mr Saravanan's father, who owns the restaurant but declined to be named, said: "They should check before spreading (the video). They should know it can spoil people's lives."

Social media expert Lars Voedisch said: "There will always be people who knowingly or unknowingly send out false information, but the public should take some responsibility and check before sending it out."

hmang@sph.com.sg


This article was first published on Jan 19, 2017.
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