Bengaluru: The Zomato delivery executive Kamaraj who was accused of physical assault by a Bengaluru woman has denied the allegation saying that it was the woman who first verbally abused him, and then hit him with a “chappal.”
Speaking to India Today TV, he said that the woman, Hitesha Chandranee, refused to pay for the food that she had ordered.
“After I reached the customer’s apartment, I gave her the food package and apologised for being late. She placed it on a table near the door. Since it was a ‘cash on delivery’ order, I asked her for the amount to be paid. She told me to wait since she was speaking to customer care. I requested her not to complain since it will create trouble for me,” said Kamaraj.
According to him, Chandranee then refused to pay for the food. He then said that he tried to explain her about the delay but she did not oblige. Things escalated when she pushed him and threw a slipper at him.
“When she was hitting me, I defended myself by pushing her hands away. She had a ring on her finger and this hit her nose. You can see the ring in the video she has posted on social media,” he continued.
After seeing Chandranee’s injury, Kamaraj left from there.
Kamaraj then received a call from the Zomato customer care asking him to leave the place. They had cancelled the order and Kamaraj was asked to take the food back.
Meanwhile, Zomato CEO and co-founder Deepinder Goyal in a statement, said, “We are in constant touch with Hitesha, covering her medical expenses, and helping her with the proceeding,”
“We are also in touch with Kamaraj (the delivery executive), extending all possible support to make sure both sides of the story come to light and that due process is followed in the spirit of fairness.” he said.
Addressing the incident, Goyal said that while Kamaraj’s services had been temporarily suspended, Zomato is “covering his earnings in the interim while there is an active police investigation”.
“Also, for the record — Kamaraj has made 5,000 deliveries for us so far, and has a 4.75/5 star rating on our platform (which is one of the highest), and has been working with us for 26 months now. (These are facts, not opinions, or inferences),” Goyal’s statement read.
The incident happened on Tuesday and the matter came to light on Wednesday when the woman shared a video on social media detailing the sequence of events.