Kuala Lumpur, May 29 : The family of alleged car thief A. Kugan has filed an application to compel the police to return all items, documents, tissue samples and bodily fluid which were seized from Universiti Malaya Medical Centre to its pathology department.

Kugan's mother, N. Indra, 41, filed a notice of motion and a supporting affidavit through her lawyer N. Surendran at the High Court criminal registry yesterday.

Kugan, 22, was detained by the police on Jan 15 for alleged car theft but died five days later while in police custody, The Star reported.

Indra, who is a hotel housekeeper, said she wanted to get back the samples and documents for forensic pathologist Dr Prashant N. Samberkar to complete the second post-mortem.

Her husband, contractor R. Ananthan, 44, and relatives accompanied her.

Indra is asking the High Court to set aside and/or cancel a search warrant issued by the Petaling Jaya magistrate's court for the search and seizure at the pathologist's office on April 6.

Apart from that, the mother of four is also seeking to get other relief deemed fit by the court.

She said the head of Serdang Hospital forensic unit, Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin, had performed an autopsy on Kugan's body on Jan 21. He stated the cause of death as "acute pulmonary oedema".

Indra was not satisfied with the findings as she believes that her eldest son was beaten up and tortured during the detention.

The family appointed Dr Prashant to conduct a second post-mortem on Jan 25.

She said the UMMC was making preparations to send the samples to a forensic lab in Australia before the search and seizure took place. (ANI)