A video of a young man being beaten up by a group of men is being given a false communal spin online and shared with the claim that the victim is a Muslim delivery executive.
BOOM found that the claims are false, the delivery executive and the other people involved are all Hindus; there is no communal angle to the incident.
On March 19, 2024, Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal announced a "pure veg" fleet for his food delivery app where a designated number of delivery partners would wear green uniforms and exclusively deliver vegetarian food. The decision received criticism from social media users who pointed out how this could result in discrimination against delivery partners and possibly endanger their safety. Taking heed of this criticism, Zomato has subsequently reversed some of its decisions around the idea, specifically the colour segregation of uniforms.
The viral video of the delivery partner being thrashed was shared a day before Zomato announced its pure veg fleet and hence is not connected to the food app's controversy.
It is being shared on X with the "MUSLIM DELIVERY DRIVER ATTACKED IN INDIA"
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the viral claims are false, the accused and the victim are Hindus and the latter was beaten up because of a personal dispute; there is no communal angle to the incident.
We ran a keyword search for the incident on Google using 'Delivery boy beaten up shirtless' and found several reports published around February 23, 2024. A report by The Telegraph carried the headline 'Noida: Delivery boy stripped shirtless, assaulted by men known to him over personal dispute'
The visual in this news report was an exact match to the viral video. Below is a comparison:
According to this report, the incident took place on February 9 in Noida, when delivery executive Abhay Pratap was assaulted by the group of men over a personal dispute. The report carried a statement from a police spokesperson who confirmed that the victim and the accused were known to each other and had a dispute over a separate matter. An FIR was registered at the Sector 113 police station in Noida.
Similar reports were published by Deccan Herald, and The Print around the same date. None of the reports mentioned any communal angle to the incident.