Police Warn Zomato User Who Cancelled Food Order Over 'Non-Hindu Rider'

The Jabalpur police on Thursday sought a written undertaking from Zomato customer Amit Shukla that he would not spread religious hatred, a day after the latter tweeted that he cancelled his food order 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.

On Wednesday, the controversy created quite a buzz on Twitter. While many slammed Shukla and called out his "bigotry", some others sided with him.

He, in a tweet, claimed that Zomato sent a "non-Hindu" delivery boy and hence he could not accept food from him.

The customer tweeted, saying, "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 delivery I don't want don't refund just cancel."

But the food aggregator won hearts on the Internet responding, "Food doesn't have a religion. It is a religion."

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 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)