Lucknow: No casteist angle in the Zomato delivery executive ‘assault’ incident as reported by media, here is what we know

On Monday, June 20, many media houses reported about a Zomato delivery executive being allegedly thrashed and hurled with casteist slurs by a customer and his family when he went to deliver an order in the Ashiana area of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh late on Saturday, June 18. Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar report’s headline in Hindi read, “Customer in Lucknow refuses to accept food from Dalit delivery boy: spits on the face, thrashes and abuses, case filed against 14 including 2 known people” Report by Dainik Bhaskar Twitter handle Bolta Hindustan Tweeted in Hindi which roughly translates to, “We don’t eat food touched by Dalits, a customer in Lucknow said this while spitting on the face of a Dalit delivery boy from Zomato”. Tweet by Bolta Hindustan Aaj Tak, the sister channel of India Today group titled its report, “Lucknow: I am a Dalit that is why they did not take the food and spat on my face, Zomato delivery boy alleges” Report by Aaj Tak India TV wrote, “In UP Lucknow, a customer refuses to accept food since the delivery boy was a Dalit, thrashed him up” Report by India TV The leftist news portal The Quint published a report on its Hindi website on the aforementioned incident with the headline, “Zomato delivery man alleges customer did not accept food as he was Dalit, spat on face” Report by The Quint Asianet News, ABP News, Hindi daily Amar Ujala and News18 also published the news by dragging the Dalit angle into it. Accused customer reveals he too belongs to the OBC category When OpIndia spoke to the customer Ajay Singh, who has been accused of thrashing, spitting at and hurling casteist slurs at the Zomato delivery executive, ‘Dalit’ Vineet Kumar Rawat, the former said, “We are not upper-caste Savarnas, but also belong to the OBC category. There are only 4 adults in my house, the allegation of 10-12 is baseless: Zomato customer Ajay Singh While speaking to OpIndia, the Zomato customer added that the allegation meted out by the Zomato delivery executive that 10 to 12 people came out of his house to thrash the delivery boy was absolutely false and baseless.