A 19-year-old delivery boy in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut was allegedly assaulted and verbally abused by a customer at his residence for a delayed delivery of grocery items on Friday evening. The victim has alleged that following the assault, he was threatened and warned that he would be falsely implicated in a case of sexual assault if he told anyone about the incident.
The incident came to light after a video of the assault began circulating widely on social media, drawing the attention of local authorities.
According to the police, soon after Amit Yadav, a Blinkit agent, received an order to deliver grocery items to a residence in the Bhawanpur area, the customer, Yaman, called him and asked why the delivery was taking so long.
“I explained that I had only received the order five minutes earlier and that the shopkeeper was still packing the items. Suddenly, the customer got angry and threatened to ‘teach me a lesson’ once I arrived to deliver the order,” Yadav, a resident of Ganganagar and a Class 12 (intermediate) student, recounted.
He added that when he finally reached the residence to hand over the delivery, the accused began hurling abuses at him before the confrontation turned physical. “He slapped me outside the house and then forcibly dragged me inside. He assaulted me and his wife was present. Before letting me go, the accused threatened that he would frame me in a false case of sexual assault if I told anyone about what had happened,” said Yadav, recalling the ordeal.
After stepping out of the house, Yadav called his father to the spot who was also verbally abused by the accused, the police said.
“At the time, I decided not to raise the issue and chose not to report it to the police. But today, when the video of the incident went viral, several people urged me to file a complaint. That’s when I went to the police station and got the case registered,” Yadav said.
“I work three to four hours a day as a delivery agent, earning around Rs 300 to support my family,” he said.
Yadav’s father, Harish Chandra, runs a nursery, the police said.
“Today, a video surfaced on social media, and it drew our immediate attention. Upon inquiry, we found that the incident took place on August 14, when a Blinkit delivery agent was abused and thrashed by the accused, apparently upset over the delay,” said Sudhir Singh, circle officer, Meerut police.
The police are currently searching for Yaman, who has been booked for intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of peace, criminal intimidation, and voluntarily causing hurt.
