Former Permatang assemblyperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Noh, 64, and his personal assistant were found dead this morning - both with gunshot wounds to their heads - after their car crashed into a highway divider.

azlan The police said it was likely a murder-suicide and ruled out any political motive.

Abdul Aziz was married to Siti Fatimah Md Nor, 62, with two daughters and one son, while the female aide has been identified as Tanjung Karang Wanita Umno vice-chief Siti Rohana Ismat, 43. 

According to the Star, a .38 pistol was found in the car.

The gunshots were believed to have come from inside the car they were travelling in, said The Malay Mail .

"We believe it was a case of murder-suicide," Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar told AFP .

"The shots were fired from inside the car. We have witnesses that they were the only two in the car at the time," he said, adding that a pistol belonging to Abdul Aziz was found in the vehicle.

Police are investigating the matter under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder. 

The car, a white Toyota Caldina, was said to have skidded and hit road divider in the NKVE highway.

It is learnt that the car, which belonged to Siti Rohana, was driven by Abdul Aziz and was heading towards Rawang. 

"At the moment we rule out that there was any political motive involved," Khalid said. He declined to speculate on the relationship between the pair.

The bodies have been sent to the Sungai Buloh Hospital.

Abdul Aziz, who was from Umno, was a one-term state representative from 2004 to 2008 for Permatang in Selangor. He did not contest in the 2008 general election.

Deaths no accident?

It was earlier thought that the duo had died from a car crash at about 11am near Sungai Buloh, several kilometres after the Sungai Buloh rest stop.

Khalid had initially denied on his Facebook page that Abdul Aziz was shot, calling it a rumour.

However, he Khalid issued another post on his Facebook page an hour later confirming that Abdul Aziz and his aide had indeed been shot. 

"Please don’t speculate (on the case). Witnesses interviewed at the scene confirmed there were nobody else in the car," wrote Khalid again on Facebook , at approximately 3.45pm.

In another Facebook posting at approximately 5.50pm, Khalid said that the preliminary autopsy report suggest that Abdul Aziz sustained two gunshot wounds while the aide sustained one.

“There are two bullets inside the chamber while there were three spent casings inside the chambers,” wrote Khalid.

However, at 7.15pm Khalid made a second correction in his Facebook. He said the woman had two gunshot wounds while Abdul Aziz had one.

The bodies were sent to the Sungai Buloh Hospital for post-mortem. 

Politically linked murders are extremely rare in Malaysia.

In 2008, MIC Johor deputy chief and Tenggaroh state assemblyperson S Krishnasamy was gunned down by unidentified assailants in Johor.

In another case in 2000, a motorcycle rider shot dead another state lawmaker, Lunas representative Dr Joe Fernandez, also from MIC, when he stopped at traffic lights.