‘Let the truth win’, says Zomato delivery man accused of hitting Bengaluru woman

With the Zomato delivery man accused by a Bengaluru influencer of assaulting her now sharing his side of the story, it has turned into a case of “He said, she said”. Kamaraj, the Zomato delivery executive accused by Hitesha Chandranee of hitting her and leaving her nose bleeding after she raised an issue with her order being late, has told ANI that the customer started hitting him first.

“She started hitting me with slippers and at some point in time while safeguarding myself, my left hand touched her right hand and the ring which she [was wearing] hit her nose and it started bleeding.”

Earlier, Zomato had issued a statement noting that it would hear both sides in the dispute, and while it had terminated Kamaraj’s work for now, it would cover his legal expenses as well as those of the customer.

Kamaraj said he was the only breadwinner for his family. “I don’t want to make it more complicated, let the truth win. If not, I will fight it legally. I have a mother with co-morbid conditions, my father died 15 years back, I am the only breadwinner for my family. I am working in Zomato for the past 26 months with 4.7 ratings. As of now, the company has blocked my ID until this case completes and assured taking it back once the matter resolves,” he said.

Chandranee had brought the incident to light after sharing a video of her bleeding nose on social media. 

Saying she had ordered food at 3.30pm, Chandranee said the delivery did not arrive on time and as a result she called Zomato’s customer care to complain—asking either for a refund or for the order to be cancelled. She says when the executive arrived, she did not open the door completely as she had a pet dog, and asked him to wait as she was on a phone call with Zomato.

In the video, she says she told the executive to take the order back, but that he refused to do so. She says the executive started screaming at her, asking if she considered him her slave as she was making him wait for so long. She claims he pushed the door open, snatched the order from her table and struck her. On seeing that she had started bleeding, he ran away.

Chandranee says her neighbours did not hear or witness the altercation. In a later post, she said Zomato had contacted her.

Zomato later released a statement saying their topmost priority was to get to the truth. It noted that Kamaraj had completed around 5,000 deliveries for the company and had one of its highest ratings.