Supporting both woman and executive so both sides of story come to light: Zomato

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 the company is providing “all possible support” to both the alleged victim and 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 have 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

On Wednesday, 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 the video.

Kamaraj, however, said he pushed her in “self-defence”.