In a bizarre incident in Bengaluru on Monday, 12 June, a food delivery agent was beaten up by angry residents of an apartment after an eight-year-old girl made a false complaint that he had forcefully taken her to the terrace of the building.
The incident took place in the Ittina Mahavir apartment building in Bengaluru's Electronics City area.
The girl's lie was exposed after the police checked CCTV footage around the building – which showed that the child was playing alone on the terrace.
The girl later confessed that she had lied because she was scared of being reprimanded by her parents for playing when she was supposed to be studying.
The Sequence of Events
At around 9 am on Monday, 12 June, the parents of the girl left home to drop their younger child to school. The girl was alone in the house during this time, according to the Residents' Welfare Association message.
At 9:20 am, her parents returned home to see the door locked from the outside. They then started searching for the girl, who was on the terrace of the building.
A neighbour went to the terrace to look for her. Seeing the neighbour, the girl realised that her parents were back and she came down from the terrace.
Upon being questioned regarding what she was doing there, she told her parents that a stranger rang the bell of the house and "dragged" her to the terrace. She also said that she bit him to escape.
At 9:30 am, the girl's father and neighbours approached the building's security officials to look for the accused delivery agent.
At 9:40 am, the girl came to the security gate as well and identified the delivery agent who she said had taken her to the terrace.
A police official involved in the investigation of the case told The Quint, "In a spur-of-the-moment reaction, the parents of the girl and a security guard hit the delivery agent."
The girl's parents then filed a formal complaint and the police started their investigation into the matter. In the meantime, hundreds of delivery agents gathered outside the apartment building in support of their colleague.
During the investigation, the police took the girl's statement. They also looked at footage of the restaurant where the delivery agent had gone to pick up the food parcel. However, CCTV footage showed that the agent was still at the restaurant when the alleged incident is said to have occurred.
The delivery agent was also taken to the hospital to analyse whether there was a bite mark on his hand (as the girl said in her complaint).
At 8:30 pm doctors said that the mark on his hand was due to an injury, and not caused by a bite. Hence, it is proved that the suspect was misidentified and is innocent.
Further, CCTV footage from a nearby building also showed that the girl was playing alone on the terrace at the time the alleged incident occurred. The footage was shown to the girl's father as well.
At 11 pm, the suspect is finally released from custody.
'Such False Complaints Can Destroy Livelihoods': Union Leader
Commenting on the unfortunate incident, Shaik Salauddin, National General Secretary of the Indian Federation of App Based Transport Workers (IFAT), said that such false complaints could have major ramifications on the livelihoods of gig workers.
"When false accusations are made against gig workers, the careers are destroyed. Companies block their IDs and their livelihoods come into question. On the smallest of complaints, our accounts get deactivated," he told The Quint.
Salauddin further said that such false accusations are made against drivers, delivery partners and other gig workers on a regular basis, but they are never proved.
"Whenever a delivery agent does something wrong, we as a union do not accept it and never side with him," he said.
He added, however, that when such false cases are made out, companies of gig workers must stand by them.
"It comes down to life and death for people like us. Our work is the only way we are able to fill our stomachs," he added.
Meanwhile, many people took to social media to question the upbringing of the girl. One such Twitter user wrote, "What kind of mindset is this? (I feel) sorry for her upbringing. Her one move ruined (the lives of) an entire family, the sole bread earner of his family. Shameful!"
Several incidents have been reported in the last few years – in which gig workers have been humiliated and beaten up by customers.
In April last year, a woman from Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur kicked and beat a delivery partner with her shoe, claiming that his bike had collided with her scooty. However, eyewitnesses claimed that she herself was talking on the phone while riding her scooty.
In another incident in March 2021, a Bengaluru woman claimed that a Zomato executive punched her on the nose when he came to deliver her order. The delivery partner, however, rebutted her allegation, saying that she was the one who tried to hit him because he had delivered the order late due to traffic. In the skirmish, she allegedly injured herself with her own ring.
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