• McDonald's India

McDonald's India (Photo : www.inquisitr.com)

McDonald's India temporarily shut down its Pune outlet due to an incident involving an employee who threw a homeless child out of the store.

The incident occurred on Jan.10 in a McDonald's outlet in the city of Pune. Shaheena Attarwala, a customer who visited the McDonald's outlet, posted a picture on her Facebook wall, describing what happened.

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The homeless kid was asking the woman for a drink. The woman decided to go inside McDonald's with the child to buy him a Fanta float. But, one of the employees stopped them both, grabbing the poor child and throwing him out.

The woman's Facebook post went viral just hours after posting. The fastfood giant received criticism about the employee's actions.

McDonald's gave out an official statement regarding the incident. McDonald's India vice president Ranjit Paliath said that the firm is already "investigating internally" whether there was a "breach in basic courtesy."

On Saturday, McDonald's India gave the staff member a suspension after the Maharashtra government stepped in, according to IBN Live.

Days after the incident, the Pune outlet was closed for two hours on Jan. 17 after a group of about 12 men threw mud at the store allegedly because of the homeless kid incident, Times of India reported.

Umakant Pune, a Deccal police sub-inspector, told TOI that the group involved could be the social organization Dalit Panther. He said that the men were reportedly shouting "Dalit Panther ki jai." The investigators will be examining footage from the CCTV cameras.

When a reporter from TOI visited the Pune outlet in the evening, the store's shutter was down.

The security personnel involved in the mud-throwing incident was given suspensions, a press note from MCDonald's India said.