An ethnic Indian in Malaysia was on Wednesday buried according to Islamic rites after the Malaysian High Court rejected his Hindu widow's claim over his body, saying the Shariat court has ruled he was a Muslim.
The body of 36-year-old M Moorthy, who was part of Malaysia's 1997 team which scaled Mount Everest, was lying in a Kuala Lumpur hospital after it was caught in a legal battle since his death on December 20.
Insisting that Moorthy died as a Hindu, his wife Kaliamaal Sinnasamy had moved the court claiming his body for last rites according to Hindu rituals. Moorthy's colleagues told her that the former army man had converted to Islam in 2004 and changed his name to Mohammed Abdullah.
Ending the legal battle, the High Court accepted the plea of the Islamic Affairs Department that he was a Muslim as the Shariat court had earlier ruled that he had converted to Islam. It said it had no jurisdiction in the Shariat court ruling.
Following the court's ruling, officials of the Islamic Affairs Department took the body and washed it according to Islamic rites and buried it.
Kaliammal's lawyer, A Sivanesan, said Moorthy's widow felt that anybody could take the body, but her husband's soul 'is still with us'.
Sivanesan said the ruling was a setback for non-Muslims in the country.
Haris Mohamad Ibrahim, a lawyer representing Malaysia's Bar Council, said the verdict was a 'human tragedy'.
The case has drawn the attention of the media and the public in Malaysia where its minority population of Chinese and ethnic Indians freely practice their own religion.
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