Mohan died a Muslim, says court

BY LISA GOH and RASHITA A. HAMID

SHAH ALAM: The Syariah High Court has ruled that deceased art director Mohan Singh was a Muslim at the time of his death on May 25 and should be buried according to Muslim rites.

Syariah High Court judge Justice Mohamad Khalid Shaee @ Shaii ruled that Mohan Singh’s conversion was valid after hearing testimony from five witnesses and examining the documents brought before the court yesterday.

He issued the order in chambers, allowing the application by the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) to handle the funeral of the deceased.

He also ordered the Sungai Buloh Hospital director to hand over Mohan Singh’s body to Mais.

On Monday, Mais filed the application with the Syariah High Court to certify Mohan Singh’s conversion status. He was also known as Mohammad Hazzerry Shah Mohan Abdullah.

Mais claimed he had converted to Islam in 1992 in Penang.

However, the deceased’s family claimed that the 41-year-old who died of a heart attack, had neither converted nor practised Islam, adding that he practised Sikhism and had performed the last rites for his late mother three years ago.

On Wednesday, they filed for a judicial review at the civil High Court here against the Sungai Buloh Hospital’s decision not to release Mohan Singh’s body to be cremated according to Sikh rites.

Their application will be heard at the civil High Court before Justice Rosnaini Saub on June 16. They were also granted an interim order not to allow the hospital to release the body to any other party pending the disposal of the case.

In the application, the plaintiffs – P. Nagamuthu (Mohan Singh’s stepfather), and sisters – Baldi Kaur, J. Belvikohr and Jaswant Kaur – named six defendants including the Health Ministry director-general, Sungai Buloh Hospital director and Mais.

The plaintiff’s counsel Rajesh Kumar said they would wait for the civil court’s decision as they were not bound by the Syariah Court’s ruling.

Mais had gone to the Sungai Buloh Hospital to claim Mohan Singh’s body with the Syariah court order, but the body was not released to them.

Rajesh said the hospital’s forensic head Dr Shahidan Md Nor had agreed to wait for the civil court’s decision.