High Court corrects magistrate court's order for exhumation of Cradle CEO

SHAH ALAM (Bernama): The High Court here on Thursday (Oct 4) corrected an order issued by the Petaling Jaya magistrate's court on Monday (Oct 1) which allowed police to exhume the body of Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Nazrin Hassan.

Judge Datuk Ab Karim Ab Rahman used his discretion to correct the provision under Section 339(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code (KPJ) to Section 329 (3) of the same Code.

"The magistrate should not have issued the order under Section 339(3) of the KPJ because the section involved the application for inquest, while the case is still at investigation stage.

"In this regard, I corrected the magistrate's order under Section 329(3) of the same code to empower police exhume Nazrin's grave to determine the cause of his death," he said.

Judge Ab Karim made the decision after listening to the arguments from both sides in the application review by the victim's wife's counsel against the order issued by the magistrate's court.

The application to exhume Nazrin's grave was to enable a second post-mortem to be conducted on him.

Selangor CID chief SAC Fadzil Ahmat in a statement earlier said the second post-mortem on Nazrin was conducted as some family members were not satisfied with the earlier report.

At the same proceeding, Judge Ab Karim sets additional conditions which was agreed by the prosecution for a family member (victim's wife) and a religious representative to be present during the digging of the grave and reburying.

"The applicant (victim's wife) as the next of kin is allowed to be present during the process of the second post-mortem as well as an independent pathologist if it was approved by the pathologist conducting the second post-mortem," he said.

Earlier, in his argument, counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik said the order issued by the magistrate's court was not in accordance to the law as the section used by the magistrate was for the application of inquest while application by police was to exhume Nazrin's grave for a second post-mortem on the body.

Deputy public prosecutor Datuk Jamil Aripin said the application review by the counsel was baseless and premature as the case was still under investigation.

"There are no illegality and impropriety on the order of the magistrate's court. Nobody should stop the police in carrying out their investigation," he said.

On Sept 4, Nazrin's wife and her former husband were remanded for seven days to assist investigations into the case.

On Sept 9 two teenagers aged 14 and 16 were also remanded.

On Sept 24, a couple including Nazrin's sister-in-law were remanded for four days, and were released after the remand expired.

Nazrin died in a fire in his house at Mutiara Homes in Petaling Jaya at about 12.20pm on June 14.

His death was later reclassified as murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code after the Fire and Rescue Department found the presence of petrol at the fire location. – Bernama