“If she fails to come before police, we will arrest her”
Hitesha Chandranee, who accused Zomato delivery boy Kamaraj of attacking her has reportedly left Bengaluru. This came to light after cops contacted Chandranee for questioning following Kamaraj’s counter-complaint.
According to the New Indian Express report, the police said that they called Hitesha to appear before the investigating officer for questioning, but she said she had left the city and is at her aunt’s house in Maharashtra.
The police said that they have given her time to make her statement once she returns, and added, “If she fails to come before police, we will arrest her”.
Meanwhile, the city police have assured that the investigation will continue.
Hitesha has been charged with wrongful restraint, assault, intentional insult, and criminal intimidation based on a complaint by the Zomato delivery man Kamaraj. According to the officer, Kamaraj had stated that Hitesha had hit him with slippers, accused him of defaming her and hurling abuses at him on March 9.
Last week, Hitesha, a model and beauty influencer took to Twitter and stated, “So guys, my Zomato order was late and I was talking to the customer care executive and meanwhile the delivery person just did this,” said Chandranee, crying and showing her bleeding nose in a selfie video, which was also aired by some TV channels. The police personnel arrested the delivery man after Hitesha’s complaint.
However, Hitesha subsequently deleted her video from Twitter. The model had said in her video that she lodged a complaint with Zomato customer care asking them to either deliver food free of cost or cancel the order after it was delayed before the reported scuffle took place.
Zomato had initially assured Chandranee that it would help her with the police investigation along with medical assistance required. It later said that it was also extending all possible support to Kamaraj.
“As per protocol, we have temporarily suspended Kamaraj from active deliveries, but are covering his earnings in the interim while there’s an active police investigation,” Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal said in a statement posted on Twitter.
He has also said his company was bearing the legal expenses of the case.
Meanwhile, the incident drew a lot of support for Kamaraj from netizens, who questioned the plight of food delivery boys. Besides, celebrities like Parineeti Chopra, Rohit Roy, and Kamya Panjabi have also extended their support to the delivery boy.
“Zomato India – PLEASE find and publicly report the truth. If the gentleman is innocent (and I believe he is), PLEASE help us penalise the woman in question. This is inhuman, shameful and heart-breaking. Please let me know how I can help,” Chopra tweeted.
