An inventory carried out at the Dream Price supermarket in Pailles uncovered a theft of Farmland brand milk sachets worth Rs 1 million. The case was brought to the attention of the local police by the 23-year-old manager on the afternoon of Friday July 7. She suspects a security guard and a surface technician at the supermarket of being accomplices in the theft. The latter, Mahendra Seetanah and Nowshad Khaidoo, were arrested late in the afternoon of Friday July 7.
In her complaint, the woman explains that she has held the position of manager for the Dream Price supermarket for five years. She has held this position in several branches. On the evening of Thursday June 6, she had been approached by one of the employees while she was at her desk on the second floor, when one of the surface technicians placed two sealed cartons, each containing fifteen bags of Farmland milk, in a shopping cart to go to the large waste garbage can at the back of the supermarket.
With one of her colleagues, she had gone there. She was surprised to find a white 4×4 constantly maneuvering backwards and forwards. The driver was said to be an acquaintance of one of the security guards working at the supermarket. Surface technician Mahendra Seetanah, a resident of Pailles, was at that very moment near the garbage can. He claimed to have come to collect some cardboard boxes. He was then confronted with the two boxes filled with milk bags. There was no response. He was ordered to return the cart with the two boxes to the blind where he had taken them.
Mahendra Seetanah was quick to confess his guilt in the affair, explaining that the driver of the 4×4 had come to take delivery of the two boxes with the accomplice of security guard Nowshad Khaidoo, a resident of Camp Chapelon, Pailles, who was on duty. The managing director of the company that runs the Dream Price supermarkets was informed of the case and asked that no action be taken until an inventory had been carried out. This established that on several occasions these products had been stolen.
After his arrest, Nowshad Khaidoo, who is on methadone treatment, was admitted to the ward at Dr A.G.Jeetoo Hospital, Port-Louis, as he was not feeling well. Mahendra Seetanah was placed in a cell at Pope Hennessy police station. On the morning of Saturday July 8, he was brought before the Port-Louis court. He is facing a provisional charge of “larceny in receipt of wages”.
