Zomato's delivery person, who punched woman, arrested; company assures support
What's the story
The delivery man, who was accused of punching a beauty influencer in Bengaluru, has been arrested, Bengaluru DCP (South East) Joshi Srinath said, ANI reported on Thursday. He has been booked under relevant charges. Meanwhile, the company apologized to the victim Hitesha Chandranee. She had uploaded a video on Wednesday and it became a talking point on social media. Here's what happened.
Zomato's statement
Zomato said it stands by the victim
In its first response to the statement, Zomato said this isn't what its "delivery universe stands for." "We deeply regret this incident and apologize to Hitesha for this traumatic experience. We are in touch with her and are providing our complete support through the necessary medical care and investigation. Meanwhile, we have delisted the delivery partner from our platform," Zomato's latest statement read.
Twitter Post
You can read the statement here
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. (2/n)
— zomato care (@zomatocare) March 10, 2021
Delayed order
A delayed food order led to the incident
The incident began when Chandranee's food order via Zomato was delayed. She requested customer care to either cancel the order or make it complimentary. When the delivery person arrived with her food after a long time, Chandranee asked him to wait as she was yet to get a resolution from the Zomato team. "He then started shouting and that scared me," she said.
Physical abuse
The delivery man punched me, claimed the victim
As Chandranee was trying to close the door, scared of his aggressive demeanor, he barged in. "When I told him to wait, he started shouting and got aggressive. He overpowered me and barged into my house. He then snatched the order from my table, punched me in the face, and ran away," she said. None of her neighbors came to her rescue, she alleged.
Looking back
A Zomato delivery woman's behavior got her arrested in 2019
In another incident involving Zomato, Priyanka Mogre, a delivery woman for the food delivery app was arrested in Mumbai in 2019 for verbally abusing police personnel. A video had captured her irresponsible behavior. She was booked under relevant sections of IPC including Section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and Section 393 (attempt to commit robbery).