The incident where a Zomato delivery associate allegedly attacked a customer upon the late delivery of an order has taken a drastic and unexpected turn as the Zomato delivery associate claiming innocence has alleged that the customer hit her own nose with a ring and staged the entire incident.
Hitesha Chandranee, a resident of Bengaluru and an Instagram influencer, recently made a video where she alleged that a Zomato delivery associate assaulted her which resulted in a broken nose. In her video, Chandranee claimed that the Zomato delivery executive showed up angry, abused her and then later hit her on the nose before running away. Chandranee claims that her order was delayed and she was talking to Zomato customer support to demand a refund when the alleged incident took place.
Chandranee’s video detailing her ordeal quickly went viral with Zomato tendering an apology and is also covering her medical expenses and has suspended the delivery executive. “Hey Hitesha, thank you for speaking to us, we can assure you this is not the experience our delivery universe stands for. Our local representative shall be in touch with you shortly to help you with the police investigation. Along with assistance on the medical care required. We can’t emphasise how sorry we are, rest assured we’ll take necessary actions to prevent such incidents from happening in the future,” tweeted the company.
I want to chime in about the incident that happened in Bengaluru a few days ago. @zomato pic.twitter.com/8mM9prpMsx
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) March 12, 2021
The Bengaluru Police also swung into action after Chandranee registered a complaint with Bengaluru’s electronic police post against the Zomato associate which then took the delivery executive into custody. “According to him, he wanted to hand over the food and get on with another delivery. The woman demanded a refund, which was beyond his capacity. As she refused to accept the order, there was a verbal altercation. When she tried to hit him with her sandals, he pushed her in self-defence, which resulted in the injury,” said an electronic city police station official.
However, when The News Minute reached out to the delivery executive, Kamaraj, he contradicted Chandranee’s version of the incident.
“After I reached her apartment door, I handed her the food and I was expecting her to pay me (as she had opted for cash on delivery mode of payment),” Kamaraj tells TNM, “I also apologised since the delivery was delayed due to traffic and bad roads. But she was very rude from the outset. She asked me ‘Why are you late?’ I replied apologetically, as there were road blocks due to ongoing civic works and there were traffic jams as well. But she kept on insisting that the order has to be delivered within 45-50 minutes. I am working on this job for more than two years and this is the first time that I have had to go through this kind of an ordeal,” said the suspended delivery executive.
He claimed that Chandranee took the food from him but refused to pay for the same. “At this point, she called me a ‘slave’ and then she started shouting ‘What can you do?’ In the meantime, Zomato support told me that they have cancelled the order from their end based on her request and I asked her to return the food but she did not cooperate,” he added.
He also alleged that he was abused by Chandranee as he said, “At this point, when I was walking towards the lift, she started using expletives in Hindi. She suddenly threw slippers at me and started hitting me. For my safety, when she was hitting me, I tried to use my hand to shield her blows.”
Claiming that it was a self-inflicted injury, he said, “At this point, when she was trying to push my hand away, she accidentally hit herself with her finger ring on the nose, which led to the bleeding. Anybody who sees her face, will understand that this wouldn’t be created by a punch. And I don’t wear any rings.”
The case has gotten murkier and an impartial and fair investigation must take place to ensure justice.