What started as a routine resignation turned nightmarish at Kanpur’s HDFC Bank, where a viral video exposes shocking caste-laced threats. ‘I’m Thakur, yahin thok doongi,’ yells employee Aastha Singh, as recounted by aggrieved former colleague Ritu Tripathi and spouse Rishi Mishra.
On a fasting January 6 morning, Ritu arrived with her sister-in-law to tender notice, eyeing a swift departure for prayers. A washroom door left ajar triggered Aastha’s wrath. Refusing accountability, she unleashed a barrage of insults, deeming the sister-in-law ‘beneath her’ and urging her ouster.
Ritu’s husband Rishi rushed in at her behest. Probing gently, he faced Aastha’s fury firsthand—abuses capped by her caste boast and physical menace. Ritu clarified, ‘No community endorses such thuggery,’ highlighting respectful inter-caste ties she’s witnessed. As a Brahmin, she endured silently to de-escalate.
Rishi painted a grim picture: his wife’s ordeal from dawn, unutterable slurs precipitating her exit, then unlawful detention amid dignitaries. He neither confronted nor queried castes; Aastha volunteered hers provocatively. A laptop hurled his way was intercepted, per witnesses. The boss emerged post-humiliation, barring family involvement.
Captured raw, the footage has ignited debates on casteism’s stealthy persistence in modern workplaces. Stakeholders await bank action, but for Ritu and Rishi, it’s a scar of unchecked entitlement run amok.