Francis G Udayappan's mother testified at an inquest today to identify a body lying decomposed in the morgue of the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), that she, her relatives and friends had positively identified the corpse as that of her son.

G Sara Lily told the inquest in Kuala Lumpur earlier of Francis' tattoos, depicting an angel and a religious symbol on his left and right arms, respectively, and the letters 'l-o-v-e' tattooed on the fingers of his left hand.

Asked by DPP Faizah Mohd Salleh how she could identify the body at the UMMC morgue on May 24 last year as that of her son, she told magistrate Nazran Mohd Sham - acting as coroner - that she saw the exact same tattoos on the corpse.

"On the left hand, I immediately discerned the 'l-o-v-e' tattooed on four of his fingers. I subsequently saw the tattoo of the religious symbol on his right arm and the angel tattoo on his left," she said.

Sara Lily added that although the right side of the corpse' face had collapsed inwards, the rest of the face and body, including the teeth, was no different from how she remembered Francis.

"I identified the body as that of my son. (On May 25), I returned (to UMMC) with my other child, husband, lawyers and my relatives. I showed them the body of my son and everybody who came to double check saw (that it was Francis)."

Bought underwear

She also said she identified the blue underwear on the body as that which she had bought for her son before his arrest on April 14.

The inquest is a result of a protracted battle between the Udayappan family, who claim the police beat the petty theft suspect to death and dumped his body in the river.

The police have ruled out foul play and maintained that Francis, 24, had escaped from custody by jumping into the nearby Klang river on April 16.

A DNA test, however, conducted using the parents' blood samples and a bone-marrow sample from the body, failed to prove a match.

Although a forensics expert had earlier said the body had undergone such an advanced state of decomposition to deny making a conclusive judgement, he testified that there was a high degree of improbability that the body was not that of Francis.

Inquest continues on Aug 18 and 19.