A 30-year-old software engineer in Bengaluru has come forward with allegations of sexual harassment by a food delivery agent who visited her home on March 17.
According to a report by the Times of India (TOI), she placed an order through a food aggregator app from a nearby restaurant.
Upon the delivery agent's arrival at 6:45 pm, the woman offered him a glass of water, which he accepted before departing. However, moments later, he returned, requesting to use her washroom urgently. She directed him and asked him to leave afterwards.
Before leaving, the delivery agent asked for another glass of water. The woman instructed him to wait by the door, but he followed her into the kitchen. She expressed shock at his behaviour, and when he grabbed her hand, she screamed and struck him with a frying pan after which the delivery agent fled.
“Shockingly, he followed me into the kitchen. He muttered something which I didn’t understand and just grabbed my hand. I started shouting at him, asking what he was up to and why he’d come to the kitchen. As he was still holding my hand, I took a frying pan and hit him on his back. He ran out of the house. I ran behind him up to the lift, but he took the stairs and escaped,” the woman told TOI.
“The delivery boy spoke to me in broken Hindi and English, but I am not sure which language he spoke when he came to the kitchen and approached me, ” she added.
The woman described the delivery boy as having a beard and wearing a face mask pulled down to his chin. She reported the incident to the Whitefield police station, who advised her to file a First Information Report (FIR) with HAL Police.
Despite the woman's complaints, the food aggregator app was slow to respond and initially did not provide the delivery boy's details. Only after intervention from the police did they share his phone number.
As a result of the incident, residents of the building have implemented measures to restrict delivery boys' access, now collecting their orders from the gates. The building's CCTV cameras captured footage of the alleged perpetrator, aiding police in their investigation.