The controversies surrounding the food-delivery app Zomato and its delivery agents seems to have no end. A major controversy has yet again erupted after a Bengaluru-based content creator named Hitesha Chandranee accused a Zomato delivery executive of assaulting her on Tuesday after an argument over delayed delivery of food order.
The social media influencer – Hitesha Chandranee, shared a video on Instagram to allege that the delivery man attacked her after she questioned him about the delay in delivering her order.
Seen with a bloody injury on her nose, Hitesha claimed that a delivery man barged into her house and abused her after she questioned him over late delivery. Further, she said that she place an order around 3:30 pm on March 9, which was supposed to be delivered by 4:30 pm, but she did not receive it on time. Hence, she called Zomato’s customer support and requested them to cancel the order or give her free delivery.
As per Hitesha, she asked the delivery executive, whom she identified as Kamaraj, to wait as she talked to a customer care representative. Hitesha claimed that the delivery guy started abusing her after she refused to collect the order.
“The Zomato delivery guy came, and he was so rude. I don’t usually open the door because of Shushi [her pet dog], and I opened the door a little, and through the small slit, I asked him to wait because I was conversing with Zomato’s customer support,” Hitesha narrated her ordeal on IGTV.
Further, Hitesha said, “I gave him a choice saying I do not need the order so you can take it, I am okay. But he refused to take the order back, and he started screaming at me, saying, ‘Am I a slave or what? You are asking me to wait here’. So, it was really threatening for me, and I tried to shut my door, but he pushed the door, took my order from the table, that is he entered my home and punched me on my face so that I don’t get back to him, and he ran away”.
Although she didn’t make it clear, from what she said if can be concluded that the delivery executive had delivered the food to her, and as it was late, she kept the package on a table, asked him to wait outside the door, and talked to the Zomato customer care asking them to either cancel the order and take the food back, and or convert it to a free delivery. However, the executive got angry, entered her house, and took away the package.
Delivery guy says Hitesha threw chappal at her, Zomato takes note
Meanwhile, according to a report from The News Minute, the delivery executive has refuted the allegations of Hitesha and said that she was the first to hit him with a slipper, to which he responded in self-defence. The act of self-defence by the delivery guy resulted in her getting hurt due to a door, he alleged.
When TNM talked to Hitesha, she told them they she did picked up her slipper in self-defence when the delivery executive forcefully entered the house, and he had punched her. She added that the man ran away after seeing her bleeding from the attack.
Following the incident, Zomato said that it will cooperate in the police investigation as well as the medical assistance that is required.
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
“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,” Zomato has said.
