A University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) forensic pathologist, who conducted the post-mortem on a body found in the Klang river on May 23, said it was not possible to arrive at a conclusive finding on the cause of death.

Professor Dr N Kasinathan said this when testifying today at the 'John Doe' inquest at the Kuala Lumpur magistrate's court. He conducted the examination and relevant tests with another pathologist, Dr K Virendra.

Kasinathan said the post-mortem was conducted at 1pm a day after the body was found. Subsequent examinations were conducted on May 27, June 3 and July 22.

"The body was that of a decomposed adult male of medium build. (It) was dressed in blue underwear and pink T-shirt with the words 'Lock-up' printed on it. We could not determine the complexion...(it was) not possible due to disappearance of facial tissue," he said.

He also told magistrate Nazran Mohd Sham - acting as coroner - that the skull bones had become loose at the joints and that some were missing.

The soft tissues and bones from the corpse were examined, but revealed no injuries to the body, he said.

"Male external genitalia were identifiable and the teeth were in reasonable state of health (but) some were missing due to falling out after death," he said in response to questions from Deputy Public Prosecutor Ishak Mohd Yusof.

The teeth, he added, was subsequently examined by a forensic dentist.

"We could not determine the cause of death owing to advanced decomposition," he said.

Change of venue

For the first time since the inquest began , details of the proceedings moved away from accounts as to how police detainee G Francis Udayappan, 24, had allegedly escaped from the Brickfields district police headquarters eight months ago.

While his mother G Sara Lily claims the police beat him to death and then disposed of the body in the Klang river behind the station, the police have denied the allegation. An internal investigation has ruled out foul play.

On May 24, Sara Lily positively identified the body in the morgue as that of her son. However, a DNA test could not establish a match between her blood sample and a bone-marrow sample taken from the body.

She had identified the body based on a tattoo on the left arm, a tooth deformity as well as recognition of the underwear.

However, Kasinathan said today that "a faint, undecipherable, small dark stained area was identified with difficulty on the outer part of the upper arm".

He added that histology tests could not find evidence of this being a tattoo, but said there was a "certain degree of unreliability" with the test results owing to the decomposed state of the body.

Based on the degree of decomposition, he said death had occurred at least two months before the body was found in the river.

"In the external examination, certain parts (of the body) had a certain chemical change and for this to have occurred, at least two to three months must have lapsed between death and the body being found," he said.

Francis is said to have escaped on April 16 and is still missing. The body was retrieved from the river, near Puchong, just over a month later.

Tomorrow, the inquest will be moved to the UMMC mortuary where the body is being kept pending disposal of the inquest. Sara Lily's lawyer M Puravelan will pose questions to Kasinathan there.

Puravelan, in encouraging that proceedings be taken to the morgue, said it was important to have sight of the body as there have been conflicting claims of scientific and medical evidence, and because "positive visual identification" has been made.

The inquest will then continue from Jan 5-7.