The mother of deceased VCD vendor G Francis Udayapan has sent an appeal letter to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to order the release of the body, which has been at the Universiti Malaysa Medical Centre morgue since May 23.

G Sara Lily faxed the letter to Abdullah's official and personal numbers on Saturday, asking him to use his authority to inform police to release the body, which she had positively identified as that of her son on May 25.

"I sincerely hope that Datuk Seri will help me bring home my son so that my family and I can perform his burial rites. I hope you can understand my feelings as a mother who has lost her child and wants to bury him," she wrote, also apologising for the handwritten letter.

Sara Lily had identified the body based on a tattoo on his upper left arm and a tooth deformity.

"I bore him and raised him for 24 years, I (would) certainly know if he is my son or not," she said in her letter, a copy of which was obtained by malaysiakini .

Although she had signed a police statement to claim the body, the police subsequently asked her for a blood sample so that a DNA test could be done.

Sara Lily told the premier that she had complied on June 18 in the hope that this would resolve the matter.

"I have called the police numerous times but they refuse to tell me anything. Inspektor Nik Rosazhan Nik Abdul Hamid promised me, when I gave (the sample), that the results would be out on June 21," she said.

'Blame on chemist'

Family lawyer N Surendran said the police informed him this morning that the results were still not ready.

"Nik Rosazhan told me that the Chemistry Department has yet to complete the test. He has put the blame on the delay on the chemist," Surendran said.

Earlier, Sara Lily's estranged husband, Govindasamy, had given a blood sample to the police, who then claimed that a match had not been obtained.

When contacted, Parti Keadilan Rakyat deputy Youth chief S Manikavasagam described the length of time taken for the DNA test as "not logical".

"I've checked with a few doctors and apparently it takes only a few days for DNA tests to be completed," he said.

An official from the Chemistry Department, who refused to be named, would only say: "It depends on the situation but generally, it does not take more than a week for a DNA test result to be known."

Udayapan's body was found in the Klang River on May 23 after he purportedly escaped from the Brickfields police district headquarters in mid-April.

His family has disputed the police version of his death, but a federal police investigating team has said there was no foul play in the matter.