Hyderabad: A 34-year-old catering businessman has been arrested for allegedly using abusive language against a customer for refusing to pay for poor service at Masab Tank. Seven similar cases were booked against him at different police stations in the city for supplying unprofessional caterers and abusing customers when they refused to pay money,RGI Airport police have said.On June 11, RGI Airport police received a complaint regarding caste-based slurs used by the accused, MV Swamy, who is into catering business, against a woman customer. A case was registered under Sections 351(2) (Criminal intimidation), 352 (Intentional insult with intention to provoke breach of peace) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Section 67 (Publication or transmission of obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology (IT) Act and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.After collecting evidence, police arrested the accused from Masab Tank on Monday (July 27) evening. During interrogation, the accused confessed that in 2022, he had published an advertisement on Just Dial offering catering boys for various functions and started supplying catering workers to customers once they agreed to charges quoted by him.“After a while, several customers started complaining that the catering workers supplied by him were unprofessional, citing issues such as poor dressing, late arrival at venues and other deficiencies in service. Some of them either withheld payment or refused to pay the agreed sum. In such cases, the accused used to abuse those customers in filthy language on the phone. He also used various social media platforms to post abusive content insulting those customers,” assistant commissioner of police (ACP), RGI Airport, V Sreekanth Goud said.Police seized three cellphones from the accused. He was produced before court and sent in judicial remand.During the preliminary probe, police found that he was accused in seven more similar cases registered at Jawaharnagar, Madannapet, Bachupally, Meerpet, Gachibowli, Kothur and Kukatpally police stations in 2026.
