SHAH ALAM, July 13 — Lotus’s Malaysia has launched a thorough investigation following allegations that a pregnant woman was wrongly accused of theft and treated inappropriately while shopping at one of its branches in Selayang on Saturday.
The company said it was aware of the incident, which has gone viral on social media, and is gathering information to establish the full circumstances surrounding the matter.
“We are deeply sorry to learn that the incident caused distress to the customer involved. We take the concerns raised very seriously.
“We are conducting a thorough investigation to obtain a complete picture of what happened.
“We have also contacted the customer concerned to gain a clearer understanding of her experience,” it said, as quoted by Harian Metro.
According to Lotus’s Malaysia, it is unable to comment further on the incident as investigations are still ongoing.
Earlier, the husband of the 23-year-old woman claimed that his wife had been asked to stand for about 20 minutes after being accused of concealing items under her clothing while at the supermarket.
The man, identified as Fareez, 25, said matters took a more troubling turn when the staff member looked at his wife’s stomach before asking a question he described as inappropriate.
“He looked at my wife’s stomach before asking, ‘What items are you hiding in your stomach?’” he said.
Fareez said he then asked the staff member to produce evidence that his wife had stolen anything, as alleged.
However, he claimed that the employee instead asked his wife to show her maternity record book as proof of her pregnancy before instructing her to expose her stomach to prove that she was not hiding any items.
His social media post about the incident sparked widespread reactions online, with many users expressing dissatisfaction over the actions of the supervisor involved.
