Who leaked the CCTV image? Husband presses supermarket for answers over pregnant wife's ordeal
Fareez said the apology amounted to nothing more than damage control without transparency.
SHAH ALAM – The husband of a pregnant woman allegedly publicly humiliated at a Lotus's supermarket outlet demands answers over an alleged breach of customer privacy, saying the retailer's apology raises more questions than it resolves.
Mohamed Fareez Shah said he and his wife were disappointed by Lotus's Malaysia's official statement, which he claimed spent more time urging the public to stop criticising its employees than explaining how such a serious incident had been allowed to happen.
Writing on social media platform Threads yesterday, Fareez said the apology amounted to nothing more than damage control without transparency.
He questioned how a CCTV image of his wife, captured inside the Selayang outlet, had ended up circulating on social media, demanding to know who was responsible for the leak and whether any disciplinary action had been taken over the apparent privacy breach.
"A CCTV image from inside your premise doesn't magically appear on social media. Who leaked it? Has Lotus's identified the individual responsible?
"Your statement says you have completed your investigation. Then answer these questions instead of avoiding them," he said.
Fareez said the matter had gone beyond a false accusation, describing it as an issue of negligence, humiliation and what appeared to be a serious breach of customer privacy.
He said he and his wife would continue pursuing the matter through every appropriate legal avenue until all those responsible were held accountable.
Identifying herself as Fareez's mother, a commenter on the post @rinamohideen333 said the pregnant woman was now under a doctor's care, struggling with severe emotional distress and depression since the incident.
"She has barely been eating for days since the incident. As a family, we are deeply worried about both her well-being and the health of the unborn baby," she claimed.
Earlier, Lotus's Malaysia apologised to the customer and his family after an internal investigation into the Selayang incident found that the situation had been handled below the standards expected by the retailer.
The company said appropriate disciplinary action had been taken against those involved, while additional measures had been introduced to strengthen staff guidance, procedures and training.
"We have completed our investigation into the incident at our Selayang store and have concluded that the handling of the situation fell short of the standards our customers rightly expect of Lotus's and those we expect of ourselves," the company said in a statement.
Lotus's extended its apologies to the customer, his wife and their family, saying no customer should ever have to experience what they went through, adding that it had reached out to the family directly.
The statement followed allegations by Fareez on social media, who claimed his 38-week pregnant wife was publicly humiliated after staff at the Selayang outlet wrongly suspected her of concealing stolen items beneath her clothing.
He alleged that after the couple had paid for their groceries, a staff member stopped his wife and questioned what she was hiding around her belly.
He claimed employees later demanded she produce her maternal health record and expose her stomach to prove she was not concealing stolen merchandise.
Download Sinar Daily application.Click Here!
