Potential tomb raider calls police station to enquire if stealing from the dead is a crime

AN OLD clip purportedly to be a recording of a phone call to the Teluk Intan police station has got tongues wagging when it again made its rounds on the social media after a span of six years.

In the clip, an enquirer with a noticeably foreign-sounding accent asked in fluent Bahasa Malaysia what are the legal consequences of digging up a corpse for the purpose of removing any worldly possession the deceased no longer needs.

The police officer who answered the call managed to maintain a friendly demeanour in the face of such a ludicrous enquiry by coolly explaining to the would-be tomb raider that it is definitely illegal.

Unless the grave is of a relative, the body can only be exhumed with the proper documentation to which the caller could be heard expressing his obvious disappointment.

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The caller kept repeating that the person is dead and his confusion over why he could not remove any valuables was palpable.

According to the AskLegal.my website which referenced the clip when it first made its rounds, even the deceased have rights, citing examples of wills and copyrights that are legally binding after the person has passed on.

The legal knowledge sharing site also included a definition of theft to make things extra clear.

The definition for theft under Section 378 of our Penal Code is:

Whoever, intending to take dishonestly any movable property out of the possession of any person without that person’s consent, moves that property in order to such taking, is said to commit theft.

AskLegal.my went on to outline the legal consequences for grave robbing:

Being in a graveyard when you’re not supposed to is a recognised crime in Malaysia. Under Section 297 of the Penal Code, trespassing on burial places knowing that people might be offended is an offence that can earn you one year of imprisonment and/or a fine.

It added:

Under Section 97 of the Local Governments Act 1976, digging up (exhuming) dead bodies can only be done in two ways in Malaysia:

1) By court order for an investigation; and

2) Under a license from the local authority.

This license cannot be given where the cause of death was an infectious disease that needs to be controlled through quarantine, or where the corpse is buried for less than five years (unless special circumstances are present). The penalty for illegally exhuming a dead body is a fine up to RM5,000 and/or one year of jail.

In the clip, the caller seemed to still be considering his options despite being clearly told that it was a no-go, asking what the remand period for such a crime is.

His audible gasp when told it was 14 days even suggested that he might have been very close to carrying out the dastardly deed, having possibly identified a target.

While the video may be a few years old, the content does highlight a few pertinent and relevant issues.

Firstly, not even the dead are safe. Secondly, the voice of an obviously foreign-sounding person making such an enquiry will once again spark furious discussions about the massive migrant population in the country.

Perhaps in the future, relatives can place valuables of their loved ones in a safe deposit box while resorting to burning ‘paper key’ to the safe deposit box for the deceased upon his/her burial to enable him/her to access his/her once worldly possessions.

Or maybe this could be the opportunity for some enterprising individual to open a special intra-dimensional bank to cater to this specific market. – Focus Malaysia