A Kelantan palace guard Ramli Mohamed was shot from about one metre by an unidentified individual while he was returning home on a motorcycle to Palembang, Tumpat, the Coroner's Court was told today.

Forensic head of the Penang Hospital Dr Zahari Noor said that one shot hit the right side of his chest and lungs.

He was making his submission on the first day of the inquest before coroner Raja Norshuzianna Shakila Raja Mamat into the death of Ramli on May 1 last year.

Dr Zahari, who performed the autopsy, said the 50-year-old Ramli died of organ failure and blood infection resulting from the shooting.

He was shot several times, one bullet hitting him from a distance of about one metre "between him and the muzzle of the gun," said Dr Zahari who carried out the post-mortem with the Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital forensic expert Dr Wan Mohd Zamri.

Ramli was going home alone after midnight from Istana Negeri Kubang Kerian in Kota Bharu. He died at the hospital 19 days after the shooting.

Ramli's wife Maznah Mustafa, also 50, said that her husband had told her of a misunderstanding that he had while on duty at the time Tuanku Ismail Petra was undergoing treatment at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

"He had said that he had a misunderstanding with a palace guard from the private sector at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital," she told the court.

Ramli's 28-year-old daughter Nurhidayah said that she had heard her father, while being treated at the hospital, tell a colleague that he had been shot four times and that there were still bullets in his body.

Nurhidayah said that her father could not tell who had been stalking him because it was dark.

- Bernama