Days after Hitesha Chandranee, a woman in Bengaluru, accused a Zomato delivery executive of assaulting and injuring her, the co-founder of the food delivery app, has said that the company is providing “all possible support” to both the alleged victim and the delivery partner to ensure that “both sides of the story come to light”. “We are in constant touch with Hitesha, covering her medical expenses, and helping her with the proceeding,” Zomato CEO and co-founder Deepinder Goyal said in a statement. “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.”
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. For the unversed, , Kamaraj was arrested after Chandranee alleged in a video shared on social media that she was “hit” and “left bleeding” by the delivery executive, who “ran off” after the incident. “So guys, my Zomato order was late and I was talking to the customer care executive, and meanwhile, the delivery person just did this,” she said in tears as she pointed to her bleeding nose. In a longer video on Instagram, she claimed her nose was broken in the accident and she needed to undergo surgery. However, Kamaraj alleged that he “pushed the model in self-defence”.“Kamaraj gave a statement saying the woman had asked for a refund for the order when he went to deliver the food. He told her that the refund was not possible from his side, but she refused to accept the food, and according to him, this led to a verbal attack by her. He alleged she tried to hit him with her slippers, and in self-defence, he pushed her which resulted in the injury. This is the version of Kamaraj,” a police officer said.