Is there a police cover up in the works in the event of a second post-mortem on the late G Francis Udayappan?

This question was posed by the Police Watch and Human Rights Committee (PWHRC) after viewing the remains at the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) mortuary this afternoon.

PWHRC committee members, lawyers, and civil society representatives had accompanied Francis' mother G Sara Lily to the mortuary.

However, they were shocked to discover that the body was without a head.

They claimed that when they had first seen the body after it was retrieved from the Klang river two years ago, the head was still intact.

Body tampered with

According to PWHRC coordinator B Chandran, the family suspected that the body had been tampered with.

"We were shocked. The family sees no reason for this 'beheading'. Only a clean mandible bone with some teeth sticking out a part of the skull was left," he said in a statement.

However, he said Sara Lily will not lodge a police report on this matter.

"She does not see any point in lodging a report as the very same police would be investigating their 'own crime'," he added.

Kuala Lumpur magistrate Mohd Nazran Sham - acting as coroner after a two-year inquest proceeding - ruled this morning that the body was that of Francis.

The court however found no conclusive evidence to determine that there had been foul play in Francis' death.

Sara Lily had always maintained that her 24-year-old son, who was said to have escaped from the Brickfields district police headquarters, had been beaten to death by the police and dumped into the river.

The police have denied this charge.

Brickfields police chief Zuraidi Ibrahim could not be reached for comment.