Lodging a complaint with the Consumer Claims Tribunal, the 40-year-old man claimed the bomoh was confident he could perform an exorcism of the nine spirits that possessed his father, who was in his 70s.

In an interview with The Star, Johor Tribunal head, Samuel Mut John Brody explained the strange case.

“The ‘bomoh’ charged RM90 for each exorcism to free the man’s father of the spirits.

“So, the family forked out RM810 to the ‘bomoh’ to get rid of the nine spirits.”

Samuel said that despite nine separate exorcisms, the man’s father deteriorated and died a few months later, leading the deceased family to seek the tribunal’s help for the non-delivery of services.

Samuel however explained that the tribunal was not able to act in this particular case for several reasons, one of which was that exorcisms were considered an alternative service and therefore out of its jurisdiction.

He also explained that the bomoh had not registered his business with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM), the English daily said.

He said that although the tribunal was set-up to enable consumers to file claims quickly and inexpensively, they could not act if the cases were out of their jurisdiction for one reason or another.
To avoid getting cheated, he urged consumers to check a seller’s company registration number, identification documents, full name and other details first before purchasing goods or services from them.

He cited the case of a woman in her 40s, who wanted a refund of RM1,500 from a private investigator she hired to trace her husband’s whereabouts.

The woman claimed that not only was her husband never found, the private investigator also took off with her money, never to be seen again.

Samuel said that this case too was out of the tribunal’s jurisdiction as the private investigator had not registered his business with the SSM and failed to respond to a notice to attend a hearing.