It turns out that when he told a hearing in Canada that he has “strong family support” in Malaysia, he was speaking the truth.

Exclusive details obtained by FMT from a reliable source close to Selva Kumar’s family reveal that he has been deeply embraced by his closest relatives – and that in the past few days, he has moved closer to religion.

“Since he returned to Malaysia, none of his family members have rejected or cast him aside. They all provided strong moral support,” a close friend of Selva Kumar’s family told FMT yesterday.

Earlier reports had said he would return to his former hometown of Penang after his arrival in Malaysia last week, on Feb 7. Later reports said he would stay in Kuala Lumpur where he has family.

Now, for the first time, it has emerged that he also has broad family support in Kelantan where he may be less conspicuous than in the Klang Valley. But his exact whereabouts remain unclear.

“He is very happy to be with his family, but he is also worried and a little scared of the public perception of him.

“For now, he spends much of his time at home and chooses not to go out because he does not want people to be scared or to continue viewing him negatively,” the source told FMT.

Selva Kumar’s elder brother and his sister have been his strongest pillars of support. The brother was the one who met him at Kuala Lumpur International Airport when he arrived on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha at 7.30am last week, following a stopover in Doha from Canada.

“He has repented, and he hopes the public would stop looking at him negatively. He wants to live his life like an ordinary person,” said the source, quoting Selva Kumar’s brother.

“Selva wants to clear his name.”

That will be a long road uphill for the man dubbed “Canada’s worst serial rapist”. Not helping his case are reports from the cops who caught him, as well as from Canadian prison authorities, that he is not fully rehabilitated and is likely to strike again.

A friend close to his family agreed that it would be tough for the 56-year-old to start life afresh even though the police in Malaysia have said he is a free man here. The friend told FMT yesterday: “How is he going to work if people out there still say all sorts of things about him, even though he has changed?

“Let the dust settle first.”

Malaysian police have said they will keep a close eye on Selva Kumar in response to many who have expressed alarm at his return. But a check on the couple of hundred or so responses from readers of FMT finds them divided.

When it was reported that he had arrived last week, one reader wrote: “To those who thinks this person deserves a second chance… please be reminded that he showed no remorse when convicted… he do not deserve a second chance and i have shared his recent pic to my siblings and team mates.”

But another reader said: “Let the man live in peace. The media has truly done him an injustice by the way the same news is rehashed over and over again. He served his sentence and there is a family here who have been given no thought and they deserve some peace. After all the nasty comments and shouting about public safety, like everything else here it will be forgotten. A seven day wonder. It is for the authorities to monitor him.”

Such comments summed up the gist of most FMT readers’ views about Selva Kumar.

Sarawak and Sabah have banned Selva Kumar from stepping into the states as they have the authority to do that, even to a Malaysian. Meanwhile he is scheduled to meet with the police for interrogation.

Selva Kumar, a Penang Free School old boy, left Malaysia in the 1980s at the age of 20 to further his studies in Canada.

In 1992, a Canadian court sentenced him to 24 years’ jail for 19 counts of sexual assault, 28 counts of using prohibited substances such as drugs, and 10 counts of assault and other offences.

Canadian media had quoted several police officers who investigated him as saying they believed more than 1,000 women in Canada had been victimised by Selva Kumar. His family rejects those numbers as absurd.

Many Canadians had also questioned if he had really turned over a new leaf, after parole hearings were informed that he had not shown remorse, and that he might re-offend.

But his family members have taken pains to explain that Selva Kumar has repented, even to the point of giving their word he would not repeat his dark past.

Echoing the family, a close friend of theirs told FMT, “For as long as I’ve known Selva, since our school days in Penang, I found him to be very smart, respectful of the elderly and friendly to his friends. Even after he was released from prison, he is still easy to get along with.

“The public should stop looking at him negatively… I too hope Selva’s name will be cleared.

“He really has repented, and the public do not need to worry anymore,” he told FMT.