A Swiggy customer in Hyderabad on Monday refused to accept his food order as a Muslim man had come to deliver it, the Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday. The customer had asked for a Hindu delivery executive while placing the order on the mobile application.
Mudassir Omar, who had gone to deliver the chicken-65 snack to Ajay Kumar, filed a police complaint on Wednesday. A case has not been filed yet.
Kumar, a resident of Aliabad, had used the Swiggy app to order the food item from Grand Bawarchi restaurant in Falaknuma. He listed his preferences as: “Very less spicy. And, please select Hindu delivery person. All ratings will be based on this.”
However, the delivery was assigned to Omar, who called Kumar to get directions to his home. “He asked my name and when I revealed my identity, he was angry,” Omar, 32, was quoted as saying. “He shouted at me for not honouring his preferences. He said he was rejecting the delivery, because I was a Muslim.”
Kumar then called up Swiggy’s customer care centre and demanded a refund. When the customer care executive told Kumar that he would be charged Rs 95 as cancellation fee, he allegedly said that he did not mind losing money but would never accept a food order from a Muslim, reported Hindustan Times.
Omar, who is reportedly a postgraduate student in science, said he was possibly assigned the order because he lives nearby. He told Mumbai Mirror that Kumar threatened to delete the Swiggy app forever during his argument with the customer care executive.
Amanullah Khan, the president of political party Majlis Bachao Tehreek, pointed out that the Grand Bawarchi restaurant belongs to a Muslim. He said he advised Swiggy to file a police complaint.
Swiggy has not yet issued a statement.
In July, another food delivery company, Zomato, had faced a similar customer, but refused to fulfil his demand. The customer had complained about being assigned a Muslim delivery executive for his food order in the “holy month” of Shravan. Zomato later tweeted, “Food doesn’t have a religion.”
Deepinder Goyal, the company’s founder, said: “We are proud of the idea of India – and the diversity of our esteemed customers and partners. We aren’t sorry to lose any business that comes in the way of our values.”
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