Earlier this week, Cafe Coffee Day made headlines after a customer, Arpan Verma, allegedly found cockroaches in the refrigerator of one of their Jaipur outlets, and shot a video of the nest.
The video also shows a CCD staffer approaching Verma and apparently slapping him for recording the clip.
Verma reportedly filed a notice against CCD over the incident, after uploading the now-viral video online.
@behura_kumar @jagograhakjago An assault to my friend @arpan_verma15, a legal notice has been filed. @CafeCoffeeDay… https://t.co/db2LMWuOjL
In a twist, however, an FIR was later also filed against Verma, after the employee, Priyanka Priyadarshini, accused him of assaulting and abusing her first.
Responding to the FIR against him, Verma is alleging that it is a tactic being used to get him to drop his case against the outlet.
CCD lawyer flipped the negotiations, asking us to drop the case against CCD, then only they will drop the FIR of sexual harassment.@PMOIndia
Even though CCD has tried to spin the incident, they've been facing major flak on social media and elsewhere, with people calling them out for their unacceptable practices.
Nowhere is the outrage more apparent than on Twitter, where the company has been savagely dragged over the past few days.
Shocked to see cockroaches at CCD. Why weren't they eaten up by the rats there?!
Being one of India's largest coffee chains, a lot of people have voiced their opinions. And, unfortunately for CCD, not many of them are in its favour.
Fixed the CCD logo.
From jokes to Photoshop jobs, people have found many a creative way to make their displeasure known.
Found a cockroach in my bathroom. Didn't kill it. Did a smart thing instead. I sublet the bathroom to CCD. Now I'm getting 50k monthly rent.
WhatsApp forwards have obviously played a part in the story.
In addition, the hashtag #BoycottCCD has been trending everywhere, and their official app is also being mass-downvoted on all platforms.
The Jaipur outlet manager is responsible for the cockroach & untrained staff. Bt suing the victim is definitely company's fault. #BoycottCCD
#BoycottCCD #onestarccd Just downloaded the app and did the right thing.
Going by the sheer volume of the backlash, it looks like their PR people are gonna have to work on overdrive to recover from this one.
Bear Grylls after having a coffee at CCD jaipur
Meanwhile, there's no word on whether the roaches have been cleared from their refrigerated residence yet.
