Mourners pay last respects to six-year-old boy who was allegedly murdered

JOHOR BARU: Sorrow hung over a house in Seri Alam, near Masai here.

As close relatives wept, family and friends gathered to pay their final respects to the six-year-old boy who was allegedly murdered and buried in a remote part of Negri Sembilan.

Mourners arrived quietly, some carrying garlands to be placed on M. Tishant’s casket during the funeral that began at 8am yesterday.

His distraught mother, who was rushed to hospital a day earlier, had been discharged and arrived just before the hearse carrying Tishant’s remains left the house at about 10.45am for the Hindu crematorium in Jalan Kebun Teh here for the final rites.

His father, now under arrest, was absent.

The family declined to speak to the media.

Johor women, family and community development committee chairman Khairin Nisa Ismail said the traumatised mother had been sent to hospital for treatment.

“We sent officers from the state Welfare Department to offer assistance to the family, but they declined the support,” she said.

Final journey: A hearse ferrying Tishant’s body leaving the family home in Seri Alam to be brought to the Hindu crematorium in Jalan Kebun Teh.

Her office, she said, was awaiting the medical report before arranging psychological support and other forms of assistance for the family.

Tishant was reported missing from his home on July 24 and his body was found four days later, buried near a railway line in Rompin, Jempol, far from any residential area.

The 36-year-old father has been arrested to assist in the investigation.

The remand order expires today.

The child is believed to have been strangled to death with cable ties.

Police have also recovered a hoe believed to have been used to bury the body.

“The medical team estimates that the victim died between 9am and 11am on July 23,” Negri Sembilan police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Ahmad Dzaffir Mohd Yussof said.

The case is being investigated under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder, as well as under the Child Act 2001.

On July 22, the boy’s mother had lodged a police report alleging that her husband assaulted her and forcibly took their son.

The father lodged a report on July 24 claiming the child went missing near a coffeeshop in Taman Bukit Indah, Iskandar Puteri.