Ikea's Hyderabad store accused of singling out Manipuri shopper for checking

Sethi's wife, Sunita Akoijam, asked why Ikea was endorsing such discriminatory behaviour.

Twitter users expressed outrage over how the woman was treated. Among those who took note of the incident was Telangana minister KT Rama Rao.

"This is appalling and absolutely unacceptable @IKEAIndia," he tweeted.  "Please ensure a proper apology is issued and more importantly educate, sensitise and  train your staff to respect all your customers graciously. Hope you will make amends asap (as soon as possible)."

Others described the incident as shameful. "Come forward & apologise for your egregious conduct," one user said.

Under fire, Ikea said all customers who "self-checkout" undergo a final check before leaving the store.

"(This is) to ensure the billing is correct and customers do not face any problems regarding double charging, repeat scanning of products etc," the Ikea India account tweeted.

But other customers disputed this.

"That’s a LIE," a Twitter user named Meera Mohanty said. "I have shopped there more than once and my purchases were never checked. And if this is true your CCTV showed ,tell us how many others had their purchases verified thus."

Ikea also became the target of users' anger for referring to the incident as an "inconvenience during mandatory billing protocol".

"Most rude and escapist explanation," one Twitter user said.

Another wrote: "Such a lame explanation. Been to IKEA so many times and never saw or heard it happening."