By : T.N. Alagesh

PEKAN, MALAYSIA: Even in death, there is no peace for Indonesian national Muslam Sukarno.

A permanent resident here, Muslam died when his car plunged three metres into a swampy ravine at 7am yesterday.

When the 38-year-old contractor's wife in Indonesia heard about the incident, she made arrangements for friends here to send Muslam's body back to Jawa.

However, Muslam's former wife, a Malaysian with whom he had a child, turned up at the Pekan Hospital to claim his body as well.

She was against Muslam's body being taken back to Indonesia and insisted his body be buried in Malaysia.

An argument broke out between the two parties at the hospital.

Realising that the tense situation at the mortuary could lead to an untoward incident, hospital authorities refused to release the body after the post-mortem.

District police chief Superintendent Yahya Othman said police had told the former wife's family and the representatives of the Indonesian wife to discuss things and make a decision on the matter.

He said police would not allow the body to be released from the mortuary until both parties had made a decision.