Accused customer reveals he too belongs to the OBC category It was revealed that the media’s narrative of Dalits being attacked was false and that the incident was actually unrelated to caste.

However, when OpIndia spoke to the customer and eye-witnesses, the truth appeared to be completely different. Almost all of these news outlets ran headlines implying that the Zomato delivery executive had been harassed and assaulted because he was a Dalit. Several media houses, including the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, The Quint, Aak Tak, India TV, Asia Net, ABP, Amar Ujala, and News18, evidently ascribed the casteist slant to the aforementioned incident without trying to verify details. However, when OpIndia delved into the case the facts appeared to be significantly different from what was reported in the media. It said that an FIR was also registered against the customer Ajay Singh, his brother Abhay Singh, and 12 other unidentified people at the Ashiana police station. Media reports quoted the Zomato delivery executive as claiming that the accused spat at his face and thrashed him together with 10-12 people only because he was a Dalit.

According to media reports, the victim, Vineet Kumar Rawat, who works for Zomato, alleged that a house owner, Ajay Singh, refused to receive food from his hands as he was a Dalit and spat tobacco on his face. 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.

Executive assault 2 2019