New Delhi, Feb 10
As a viral video from an HDFC Bank branch in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur shows a female employee engaged in a heated confrontation with a customer, the employee on Tuesday shared her version of the incident and said that she herself is demanding an investigation. She alleged that the confrontation escalated after the husband of a bank staff member arrived, used abusive language, and questioned her caste.
The incident took place at the bank’s Panki branch. The employee, identified in multiple reports as Aastha Singh, is seen in the video allegedly using objectionable language and making a caste-related remark during the dispute.
The footage, which is around 43 seconds long, has been widely circulated on social media platforms, including X.
In the video, Singh is seen rising from her seat, shouting, and pointing a laptop towards the male customer in an aggressive manner. The remark that has drawn particular criticism is her alleged statement, “Thakur hoon main (I am a Thakur),” which many viewers interpreted as an attempt to intimidate the customer by using caste identity.
Speaking to IANS, Aastha Singh said the incident occurred on January 6 and involved the husband of one of the bank’s staff members.
“This incident is from January 6. It involves the husband of one of our bank staff members. I myself am demanding an investigation. Earlier, the husband of our bank staff had come and used abusive language,” Singh told IANS.
Explaining the sequence of events, she said she had a brief dispute with a female staff member, which ended quickly.
“I had a little dispute and that dispute was for around one minute and it ended there only,” she said.
She further claimed the issue arose over the relieving process, stating that corporate procedures take time and cannot be completed instantly.
“The problem was that when you are joining or leaving any corporate, the formalities are very lengthy. When you are working as a cashier, then you have the responsibility of handing over the keys and completing all the basic formalities. Only then you are freed,” she said.
Singh added that the staff member wanted to be relieved on the same day, which she said was not possible under the procedure.
“I can tell you that in some organisations, the relieving period is three months and in some it is 30 days. That bank staff wanted same-day relieving,” she said.
She alleged that the husband of the staff member then entered the branch and became aggressive and questioned her caste.
“The husband of the bank staff entered and coming near my table he said, ‘Which caste are you that you are showing arrogance? Tumhare andar jyada garmi hai to hum nikalte hain tumhari garmi. Tumhari garmi hum nikalte hain kyunki hum Press mein hain',” she told IANS.
Singh further claimed he asked someone to call a woman Constable, and questioned how a woman is expected to tolerate such behaviour.
“I want to say, when you forget how to talk to a woman, how much will she bear all this just because she is a woman?” she added
