On Tuesday, a Swiggy food delivery app agent revealed that he was fired from his job after he refused to deliver non-veg food items to a customer who owns a shop in Delhi’s Marghat Baba Hanuman Mandir premises. The Swiggy agent said that he was not an ‘adharmi’ to deliver non-veg orders within the temple premise. However, the app representatives have stated that his ID has not been closed.
According to the reports, the temple authorities felicitated the Swiggy agent identified as Sachin Panchal for his decision. The saga began on March 1 when one Abhishek Sharma, who owns a shop named ‘Ram Kachoriwala’ within the Marghat Baba Hanuman Mandir premises ordered Mutton Korma and Nann from a restaurant through the Swiggy app. Panchal happened to refuse to deliver the order saying that the delivery location was from within the temple premise in Kashmiri Gate.
On this, the customer stated that the temple was 150 steps away from the shop and that he had been ordering non-veg and getting it delivered from the app on a regular basis. The food delivery person then replied saying, “But the shop is inside the four walls of the temple. You distribute prasad and all. And bringing meat to the same shop will not be right, in my opinion. I cannot bring your order as there is a mandir. I am sorry.”
The video of the incident was also made public by Panchal on social media in which he said that the Ram Kachoriwala shop offers prasad to the devotees and is located very close to the temple. “The temple is just two steps away from here. The shop owner ordered Mutton Korma and Paneer Nann and asked me to deliver them here,” he said after he reached the location at night.
#HanumanMandir | Delivery agent for @Swiggy
— Satyaagrah (@satyaagrahindia) March 7, 2023
was supposed to deliver an order of mutton korma and naan to a customer whose location was near the temple premises. However, he refused to deliver the non-vegetarian food item due to the customer’s locatio
#AntiHindu #Hindumisia pic.twitter.com/RoWXUIj1J1
Later several Hindu organizations gathered at the location and protested against the shop for ordering non-veg food on the temple premise. The shop, as per the video, has been seized.
Food delivery agent speaking to a Swiggy customer argued against delivering order. He told the Swiggy executive that he will not deliver the mutton korma order as the delivery location was near the area where offerings or sweets and Kachori to god Hanuman are prepared each day. pic.twitter.com/veU1ItlNx5
— Satyaagrah (@satyaagrahindia) March 7, 2023
The Swiggy agent, Panchal also was contacted by customer care based on the complaint of the customer, but the former strongly refused to deliver non-veg within the temple premise. “The customer offers prasad to the devotees. I won’t deliver non-veg where prasad is made and given to devotees,” Panchal said. The customer care representative allegedly then told him that even though he is not doing anything wrong, it is the company’s policy that food has to be delivered to the doorstep.
Panchal, who was felicitated by the temple authorities, said that he has lost his job. However, Swiggy has denied the development and claimed that the delivery boy’s ID has not been closed. The app representative also said that he might be perhaps afraid to take orders after the incident. “We try to sensitize our delivery men as well as our customer care staff in all such matters,” Swiggy was quoted as saying.
Marghat Baba Mandir in-charge and trustee, Pandit Vaibhav Sharma meanwhile lauded the agent and said, “Whatever he has done to protect Hinduism is his own conscience and moral action. He does not belong to any Hindu group, any political party, or any religious group. This is a message to people who say Hindu so raha hai (Hindus are sleeping). Hindu ab jaag gaya hai (Hindus are now awake). And for his moral service, we will make sure he gets a job again, he will be our brother and sevadaar in the Hanuman temple premises.”
Reports mention that the shop was seized and heavy CRPF and Delhi Police personnel are deployed near the Ram Kachori shop, adjacent to the ancient Hanuman temple.
