KUALA LUMPUR – Loh Siew Hong has accepted as fate the likelihood that she may never see justice served, following the death of her former husband, Muhammad Nagahswaran Muniandy, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 38.
The former couple were at the heart of a long-running and widely publicised legal battle involving custody and the unilateral religious conversion of their children.
“I heard about his passing but I do not know any other detail about it,” Loh told Scoop when contacted today.
“I contacted my lawyer and he confirmed the passing after checking with my ex-husband’s family.
“To me, I feel like I will not get my justice but that’s okay… maybe this is how it is.”
Loh said her three children were affected by the news.
“My three children, of course, are sad, so I brought them along to Sungai Petani to pay our last respects. But as of now, the remains of my ex-husband have not been transferred from Alor Setar yet.”
She added that the cause of death has yet to be confirmed, pending the results of a full post-mortem.
“I also heard that he may have taken his own life,” she said.
Loh and Muhammad Nagahswaran had been embroiled in a contentious legal dispute since 2020, when he unilaterally converted their three children to Islam and took them to Perlis.
This was despite Loh having been granted interim custody in December 2019, which was upgraded to full custody in March 2021. Their divorce was finalised in September that same year.
Loh, who left Nagahswaran in 2019 after alleging domestic abuse, filed a habeas corpus application in early 2022 to regain custody of her children.
The High Court ruled in her favour, paving the way for her reunion with the children, who had been placed under the care of preacher Nazirah Nanthakumari Abdullah.
Later that year, Loh initiated judicial review proceedings to challenge the children’s conversion. In April 2024, the Federal Court affirmed that the consent of both parents is required to convert a minor, confirming the children remained Hindus.
An appeal by the Perlis government to overturn the ruling and reinstate the children’s Muslim status was dismissed in April this year.
During the custody proceedings, it was revealed that Nagahswaran had a prior conviction for a drug-related offence. He was placed under restricted residence in Kelantan in November 2020 and released two years later.
Loh cited his criminal record, along with her recovery from alleged abuse and hospitalisation, as part of her argument in the custody fight.
In July 2023, Nagahswaran was charged at the Sungai Petani Sessions Court with causing grievous hurt to Loh at their home in Taman Ria, Sungai Petani, on March 3, 2019. He pleaded not guilty and was released on RM10,000 bail, with a condition to stay away from Loh and prosecution witnesses.
The trial had been scheduled to begin in September this year. – June 11, 2025