Zomato Delivery Boy Or Hitesha Chandranee – Who Is The Culprit

INTRODUCTION

Shall the truth prevail in today’s time! when there is no strong evidences to support the claims. There are two different versions to a story of 2 different people, both claim to be innocent. One believes and says that the truth shall prevail, while the other says she has faith in the judiciary. This recent incident has left the people in splits, whom to support? Whether the person who is said to be a victim is actually the victim or whether the person who is called guilty is actually guilty.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• A video was uploaded by Hitesha Chandranee stating that she was attacked by Kamaraj which led to her nose bleed and cause multiple fractures.
• This led to Kamaraj being sacked from his job by zomato and a F.I.R was lodged against him by Bengaluru police.
• Many news channels covered his side of the version too in which he claimed to have been attacked by Hitesha.
• Recently in a counter claim, Kamaraj filed a F.I.R against hitesha for lodging a false complaint against him.

HOW DID THE CONTROVERSY BEGIN?

• A 31 year old Bengaluru woman named Hitesha Chandranee shared a video on her Instagram account on 9th March alleging an attack and talked about the whole incident which took place.
• In her video she stated that she was attacked by a zomato delivery boy who was later identified as Kamaraj and requested the netizens to share this video.
• In no time her video gained attention and started trending. The Bengaluru police on a complaint by Hitesha lodged a F.I.R against Kamaraj and arrested him but he later got a conditional bail.
• According to zomato's official statement, as a matter-of-fact Kamaraj has worked for 26 months as a delivery boy for zomato and till now he had made 5000 deliveries with 4.5-star rating.
• While Hitesha Chandranee is an Infosys employee and also a model, makeup artist and an influencer.

BACKGROUND: THE 2 SIDES OF THE STORY

Hitesha Chandranee’s Version

• In the 1st video uploaded by Hitesha Chandranee she said that she was attacked by a zomato delivery boy which caused nose bleeding which she said she realized later when she saw blood on her nose and shirt.

According to her side of the story she stated that –

• She placed an order at 3:32 and the app at that time initially showed the total delivery time to reach was 59 minutes. Later when she again checked the time at 3:47 it showed that the total delivery time shall now be 61 minutes.
• She said that she had a right to fight for herself with the customer care as she was paying her hard-earned money and requested them, either to cancel the order from their side or to give her the food for free.
• According to her Kamaraj reached at 4:46 and she asked her whether Zomato gave him any update regarding free food. To which he replied rudely saying that he had no idea about the same and to hand him the cash.
• At 4:47 she complained to the customer care about his rude behaviour and asked Kamaraj to wait as the customer care was trying to contact him. And he replied by saying should he wait even if that takes 1 hour and he is not anyone’s servant.
• She further said she felt threatened by him and so she tried to close her door. But he pulled his door and took away the delivery which was kept at the side table.
• She was confused and shocked at that moment and claimed that he punched and ran towards the lift as he knew she was bleeding.
• She tried to stop him by alerting other residents and tried to get hold of him but he again pushed her and ran through the stairways.

Kamaraj’s Version

According to his side of the version he had a different story to tell –

• When he reached Hitesha's apartment he delivered the food package and apologized for the late delivery. He said that he was late due to traffic and road block as some civil works were going on.
• She took the food parcel and placed in on the table near her door and Kamaraj asked for payment of the delivery as it was (COD) Cash on Delivery mode.
• She told him to wait as she was chatting with the customer care. Upon which he requested her not to complaint against her as this would cause trouble for him.
• Suddenly Chandranee started speaking rudely and with Kamaraj to which he responded by saying that he is a delivery boy and not a slave.
• However she got angry and replied saying that so what if he is a slave? What will he do? and said to wait there.
• He told her to pay the cash to which she refused to pay and retaliate by saying do whatever you want to do! He tried to explain her the reason for years delay in delivery but she refused to pay heed to his words.
• As she did not pay, Kamaraj took the food and was about to leave when she pushed him and cursed him in Hindi. She started hitting him and even threw a slipper at him to which he raised objection.
• While defending himself he pushed her hands away and recalled that the ring which she was wearing caused her the injury as her hand hit her nose.

FURTHER DETAILS

• Allegations were made by both. Hitesha in an interview when asked about the allegations of abuse levelled against her and not allowing Kamaraj to use the lift - said that she never used any slang words but in the heat of the moment and as a reaction to the whole situation must have said something, but it was all unintentional according to her.
• And with regards to the use of lift she said that when Kamaraj realized that the door wouldn’t close as she was continuously pressing the button from outside, he pushed her and ran through the staircase.
• Clarifying on the incident whether or not she threw slipper on him, said that as she was standing near the shoe rack, she had her slipper only for the purpose of self defence but didn’t throw on him.
• While Kamaraj also gave clarification on the allegation levelled against him that whether he punched her to this he stated that he never assaulted or caused any physical violence and that she got hurt by the ring she was wearing at the time of the incident. And said that the kind of injury she got cannot be caused by a punch, as a punch causes internal injury and not external injury.

IS THIS DEBATE ABOUT MEN V/S WOMEN

Ever since this incident came to light and gained publicity; controversy began. Many netizens started taking sides whether the girl is innocent or the delivery guy. But the whole incident gained more momentum when both the sides of the story came to light. People started uploading videos explaining the same that who is the real victim and who is really the culprit.

BUT HOW DID THIS MEN V/S. FEMALE DEBATE START? – Initially when people came to know about just Hitesha’s version they were shocked and blamed the zomato delivery executive but as soon as Kamaraj shared his part of the story which highlighted a different side to the story netizens were in splits. This made people think from a different point of view.

Many started having sympathy for the delivery boy because he was sacked by zomato company before he could even explain himself, also a F.I.R was lodged against him which led to his arrest which many people feel was based on false allegations levelled against him. And also he was a mere delivery boy and a poor person who wouldn’t risk his job by doing such an act according to many who support him.

On the other hand since the beginning of this incident Hitesha kept on gaining support day by day which could be seen through her increasing Instagram followers. Even feminists raised their voices in her support and not just feminists but even others were sympathetic towards the plight faced by her.

While people supporting Kamaraj felt that it is always the boys who suffer when anyone plays the victim card or woman card. But once sympathy and attention is gained by a woman even though she is at fault or is lying or faking it then it is presumed that the men is definitely at fault.

CURRENT SCENARIO

• In a recent turn of events, Kamaraj filed a F.I.R against Hitesha under Section 355 – assault, section 504 – insult & section 506 – criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code.
• Hitesha recently issued a statement on her Instagram account saying that she is still in Bangalore and did not leave the State as reported by some media outlets.
• She also stated in her post that she wouldn’t risk her life, reputation, peace of mind and respect to orchestrate anything. Also she said she was hurt at the fact that she was harassed on social media and by the statements of some celebrities.
• Recently the CEO of zomato released an official statement which stated that they were extending their support to both the sides by covering the medical expenses of Hitesha and legal expenses of Kamaraj.

CONCLUSION

In today’s time even before the courts or the concerned authorities can decide upon the matter whether who is guilty or innocent the media trial and the netizens itself completes this task of deciding who is right or wrong. This creates confusion, leads to wrong assumptions, statements misleading and manipulation which makes people think otherwise and distances people from the truth, increases chances of cyber harassment of both until it comes to light who is the real culprit. In extreme cases it can also ruin someone’s career, reputation and dignity.

Whosoever maybe right and innocent, if the allegations made by Hitesha proves to be false and fake it shall set a bad example and genuine cases of women shall be seen and mistaken in the same light. And if Kamaraj turns out to be really at fault then it shall prove that his tears were fake and women cannot still remain safe.