On Monday, June 20, many media houses reported about a Zomato delivery executive being allegedly thrashed and hurled with casteist slurs by a customer and his family when he went to deliver an order in the Ashiana area of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh late on Saturday, June 18. According to media reports, the victim, Vineet Kumar Rawat, who works for Zomato, alleged that a house owner, Ajay Singh, refused to receive food from his hands as he was a Dalit and spat tobacco on his face.
Media reports quoted the Zomato delivery executive as claiming that the accused spat at his face and thrashed him together with 10-12 people only because he was a Dalit. It said that an FIR was also registered against the customer Ajay Singh, his brother Abhay Singh, and 12 other unidentified people at the Ashiana police station.
However, when OpIndia delved into the case the facts appeared to be significantly different from what was reported in the media. It was revealed that the media’s narrative of Dalits being attacked was false and that the incident was actually unrelated to caste.
Several media houses, including the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, The Quint, Aak Tak, India TV, Asia Net, ABP, Amar Ujala, and News18, evidently ascribed the casteist slant to the aforementioned incident without trying to verify details. Almost all of these news outlets ran headlines implying that the Zomato delivery executive had been harassed and assaulted because he was a Dalit.
Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar report’s headline in Hindi read, “Customer in Lucknow refuses to accept food from Dalit delivery boy: spits on the face, thrashes and abuses, case filed against 14 including 2 known people”
Twitter handle Bolta Hindustan Tweeted in Hindi which roughly translates to, “We don’t eat food touched by Dalits, a customer in Lucknow said this while spitting on the face of a Dalit delivery boy from Zomato”.
Aaj Tak, the sister channel of India Today group titled its report, “Lucknow: I am a Dalit that is why they did not take the food and spat on my face, Zomato delivery boy alleges”
India TV wrote, “In UP Lucknow, a customer refuses to accept food since the delivery boy was a Dalit, thrashed him up”
The leftist news portal The Quint published a report on its Hindi website on the aforementioned incident with the headline, “Zomato delivery man alleges customer did not accept food as he was Dalit, spat on face”
Asianet News, ABP News, Hindi daily Amar Ujala and News18 also published the news by dragging the Dalit angle into it.
Leftist media-friendly caste propagandists peddle the same angle
These media reports were quickly picked up by the assorted bunch of leftists who too dragged in the caste angle to spread hatred. Individuals like the Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’, ‘journalist’ working for leftist propaganda website The Wire and ThePrint and ThePrint columnist Dilip Mandal also used the reports published by the above leftist media outlets to peddle the narrative of Dalits being under attack in Modi’s India.
One thing that all of the headlines of the news reports and Tweets cited above have in common is the use of the word ‘Dalit.’ In fact, the word has been strategically utilised by leftist media outlets and their allies to create caste divide.
However, when OpIndia spoke to the customer and eye-witnesses, the truth appeared to be completely different. It was revealed that the media’s narrative of Dalits being attacked was false and that the incident was actually unrelated to caste.
Accused customer reveals he too belongs to the OBC category
When OpIndia spoke to the customer Ajay Singh, who has been accused of thrashing, spitting at and hurling casteist slurs at the Zomato delivery executive, ‘Dalit’ Vineet Kumar Rawat, the former said, “We are not upper-caste Savarnas, but also belong to the OBC category. Perhaps reading my name on the true caller’s list, it was presumed that I belong to the upper caste”.
He further confirmed that he was not even in the house when Vineet Kumar Rawat visited his house to deliver the food. “I arrived later. My brother had already met the delivery boy and had requested him to hand over the food to him. The package contained momos which I had ordered for my children. The delivery executive, however, refused to hand over the food packet to my brother. My brother has a habit of eating tobacco. When he was speaking to the delivery executive, some minor splashes of tobacco accidentally fell on the delivery executive’s vehicle. This infuriated the Zomato guy who then started misbehaving with my brother. He called him blind and abused him,” recalled Ajay Singh.
Singh furthered, “By then, I’d returned home. When I inquired about the delivery boy’s behaviour with my brother, the former began abusing my sister and then hitting me. When he pushed me, I pushed him back. After some time he left saying ‘in a while, you will know who I am'”.
There are only 4 adults in my house, the allegation of 10-12 is baseless: Zomato customer Ajay Singh
While speaking to OpIndia, the Zomato customer added that the allegation meted out by the Zomato delivery executive that 10 to 12 people came out of his house to thrash the delivery boy was absolutely false and baseless. He said, “Apart from my children, my wife and my brother and wife live in my house. My family has a total of four adults. How can it be true that 12 members of my family thrashed him? Vineet Kumar Rawat questioned.
He further recalled, “later, the delivery boy dialled 112 for the police control room and requested that they come to my house. My neighbours had gathered outside my house owing to the resulting commotion. Everyone in attendance agreed that the delivery executive was to blame. In fact, when the policemen asked if I spat tobacco in his face, I told them to look at the delivery boy’s face and clothes to see if there was even a speck of tobacco on either. I also urged the delivery boy, who said he had been battered, to reveal the marks on his body. The delivery boy was unable to establish his innocence, so he grabbed his bike and drove away.”
“Had we been at fault, would we not run away seeing the police”, questioned Ajay Singh
In order to prove his innocence, the Zomato customer further said, “Would we not flee when the delivery guy dialled 112 and summoned the cops if we were guilty? We were not at fault so we waited and confronted the cops fearlessly. We are sure that we have not done anything wrong and have complete trust in the administration which is why we are not afraid.”
Ajay Singh went on to say that the woman who cooks for them and the housekeeper they hired to look after the kids were both Dalits. “Could we have hired them if we looked down on them?” he asked.
Ajay Singh’s Dalit cook and house help speak to OpIndia
OpIndia spoke with Madhuri, a Dalit woman who has been working as a cook for Ajay Singh for the past six years. “They (Ajay Singh’s family) are extremely helpful to us,” she said. He (Ajay Singh) has always helped us financially in the past. Be it the construction of our house or if there have been any marriages or ailments in our house, he has always been of great help,” said Madhuri.
Aarti Rawat, a Dalit maid working in Ajay Singh’s home, likewise denied the allegations made by Zomato’s delivery boy. She said that she was present when the entire ruckus happened and refuted the allegations meted out at Ajay Singh’s family by the delivery boy.
‘The investigation is ongoing, and we haven’t reached any conclusions,’ what police told OpIndia
To delve into the case further, OpIndia also spoke to SM Qasim Abidi, ADCP, East Lucknow who said, “Our inquiry hasn’t come to a conclusion yet. The accused has also presented sufficient evidence in his and his family’s favour. We’re also looking into the CCTV footage etc. We have gathered that the accused has Dalit employees working for him both in his house and at his office. We are now scrutinising every detail before reaching any conclusion.”
