Police required to intervene in battle over dead man's body

MALACCA: Senior police officials were asked to intervene in a dispute over a funeral arrangement at the Malacca Hospital’s mortuary following the death of a 42-year-old engineer.

The disputre arose after the man committed suicide through self-immolation  on Tuesday died following an argument with his wife.

The deceased’s family then prevented his 41-year-old spouse from claiming the body, claiming that domestic violence had caused the engineer to take his own life.

They also allegedly stopped her from making funeral arrangements or placing his body at the couple’s house at Batu Berendam here.

State deputy CID chief Superintendent P.R Gunarajan was asked to step-in by his officers who were at the mortuary and were unable to quell the feud that turned ugly.

The matter took about four hours to resolve when police officers managed to convince both parties that the body will be taken directly for cremation once the autopsy has been completed on Saturday.

The engineer slipped into a coma after he doused himself with petrol following a heated argument with his wife at 4pm on Oct 15. During the argument, the deceased  and his wife were heard exchanging jibes before the former left the house hastily.

When he returned home at about 6pm, he brought a bottle of petrol and set himself on fire.

The deceased from Taman Sutera, Batu Berendam had three children from his 20 years of marriage.