Twitter users, including many celebrities, have supported the Zomato delivery agent Kamaraj after Bengaluru-based model-turned-makeup artiste Hitesha Chandranee accused him of assaulting and injuring her while delivering food.
Showing her bleeding nose, Chandranee posted a video on social media on March 9 and claimed that the delivery agent punched her. In a video, Chandranee said that the delivery executive attacked her after she confronted him over the delay in the delivery of her order which she wanted to cancel. "The moment I asked him (Kamaraj) whether Zomato had told him anything about cancelling the order or waiving the charges, he was very rude. He said 'Ma'am, I have no idea, please don't waste my time. Give me my money and let me go," Chandranee told NDTV.
"He sounded very threatening to me," she added. Later, Chandranee said he punched her. "It happened within two minutes. I couldn't understand what was happening. He ran to the lift...I didn't know my nose was bleeding. When I gathered myself, I went after him and stopped him. He hit me again and, as the lift wouldn't shut, pushed me and ran down the stairs," she alleged.
However, the version of the delivery executive Kamaraj is that Hitesha hit him with her footwear to which he responded in self-defence, which resulted in her nose hitting the door accidentally. Speaking to The News Minute, he said: “After I reached her apartment door, I handed her the food and I was expecting her to pay me. I also apologised since the delivery was delayed due to traffic and bad roads. But she was very rude from the outset. She took the food but refused to pay for the order. She said she was talking with Zomato chat support”.
Fearing that he will lose money, he pleaded that she pay for the order. “At this point, she called me a ‘slave’ and then she started shouting ‘What can you do?’ In the meantime, Zomato support told me that they have cancelled the order from their end based on her request and I asked her to return the food but she did not cooperate,” he added. Kamaraj said she started using expletives in Hindi and started hitting him. "For my safety, when she was hitting me, I tried to use my hand to shield her blows. When she was trying to push my hand away, she accidentally hit herself with her finger ring on the nose, which led to the bleeding. Anybody who sees her face, will understand that this wouldn't be created by a punch. And I don’t wear any rings,” he said.
Now, netizens have found a discrepancy in Hitesha Chandranee's statement. Many on social media have pointed that the model-turned-makeup artiste did not have any injury on her hand when she posted the video on Instagram, however, in a recent interview she showed scratch marks on her hand.
A Twitter user wrote: "No injury seen on her hand in first video. Injury seen on hand in interview to NDTV. Ye ho kya raha hai?"
"While her first video of fake allegation the scratch mark was not there but while giving interview to media afterwards she shows a scratch mark. Aisa kaise chalega didi. Home work acche se nahi kiya didi ne," another Twitter user wrote.
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