Police Issue Notice To Man Who Cancelled Zomato Order Over Religion

The police in Jabalpur on Thursday sought a written undertaking from Zomato customer Amit Shukla that he would not spread religious hatred.

Amit Singh, superintendent of police, Jabalpur. ANI Photo

NEW DELHI: The police in Jabalpur on Thursday sought a written undertaking from Zomato customer Amit Shukla that he would not spread religious hatred. Shukla had tweeted on Wednesday that he cancelled his food order on Zomato because the delivery man was not a Hindu. His tweet and the company's response that "food has no religion" went viral. A notice was issued to him on Thursday as preventive action, city police said. "We have issued a notice, it will be served to Amit Shukla. He'll be warned, if he tweets anything which is against ideals of Constitution, action will be taken; he is on surveillance," Amit Singh, superintendent of police, Jabalpur said.

Amit Singh,SP Jabalpur (MP): We have issued a notice, it will be served to Amit Shukla (Twitter user who cancelled food order over deliveryman’s religion). He'll be warned, if he tweets anything which is against ideals of Constitution, action will be taken; he is on surveillance. pic.twitter.com/27gf9qeaFg

— ANI (@ANI) August 1, 2019

Faiyaz, a food delivery executive with Zomato, was assigned the task of completing an order placed by Amit Shukla, a resident of Jabalpur. However, on Tuesday night, Shukla tweeted about cancelling his order placed on Zomato as the designated rider was a "non-Hindu". "Just cancelled an order on @ZomatoIN they allocated a non hindu rider for my food they said they can't change rider and can't refund on cancellation I said you can't force me to take a delivery I don't want don't refund just cancel," Shukla tweeted. However, the company stood its ground and refused to change the delivery executive. "Food doesn't have a religion. It is a religion," the company tweeted in response to the customer's request for change of the rider. Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal echoed his company's stand with a firm message. "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," he tweeted. Zomato's response won it many admirers. "Respect. I love your app. Thank you for giving me a reason to admire the company behind it," former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted. Former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi tweeted: "Salute Deepinder Goyal! You are the real face of India! Proud of you." Goyal had in an internal message to his team at Zomato applauded the customer team for "upholding our values and not discriminate on basis of caste or religion for sake of growth (or customer satisfaction)". (With inputs from PTI)