Zomato On Scheduled Castes Commission's Radar Over Withdrawn Advertisement

The National Commission of Scheduled Castes has sought details of action taken over an advertisement film by Zomato Ltd. deemed derogatory towards the Dalits. The commercial has been withdrawn by the company.

In a letter addressed to Zomato's founder and CEO, resident grievance office of YouTube in India and Delhi's Commissioner of Police, the commission said it will further investigate the matter.

Under its investigation, the panel has demanded details including the nature of crime, name of address and victim, FIR date and charges levelled, and compensation to the victim.

The panel said it will issue summons under the powers of civil courts conferred upon it if the details are not provided within stipulated time frame.

Restaurant aggregator Zomato pulled down an advertisement, played on World Environment Day, depicting actor Aditya Lakhia, who played the character Kachra in Amir Khan's Lagaan, as different recycled items.

The ad campaign came under fire for linking Kachra—a Dalit character—to 'kachra', the Hindi word for garbage.

The Deepinder Goyal-led company said that its intent was to spread awareness over "the potential of plastic waste and benefits of recycling in a humorous way."

"Unintentionally, we may have hurt the sentiments of certain communities and individuals. We have taken down the video." it said.

Zomato shares were trading 0.35% down at 77.52 apiece as of 9:56 a.m., compared with a 0.53% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex at 63,056.12.