Johor police chief Kamarul Zaman Mamat said the cause of death was obtained following a post-mortem on the boy yesterday at the Sultan Ismail Hospital (HSI) here.

“The post-mortem concluded that the cause of death was blunt force head trauma, which means the victim was struck in the head by a hard object.

“However, they also found scratches and bite marks.

“We will continue investigating to gather more information from the post-mortem,” he told reporters after attending the presentation of certificates to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia undergraduate police volunteer corps members at the Johor Bahru police contingent headquarters.

Kamarul said 10 people, including the victim’s family members, had been called up to have their statements recorded to assist in the investigation.

“More people will be called up to record their statements.”

Kamarul said five suspects, including the victim’s sister and brother-in-law, who have been under a week’s remand since Sunday, will have their remand extended for further investigations in accordance with Section 302 of the Penal Code.

The boy was buried at the Kampung Sungai Gatom Muslim cemetery at 5.30pm yesterday.

The boy was admitted to HSI on Dec 23 after he was reported to have collapsed at his sister’s friend’s house in Senggarang. He died on Monday.

The boy’s sister, 19, had taken him under her care after their parents were jailed for drug offences.

Previously, Kamarul had said there were new and old injuries all over the boy’s body. Besides burn marks, he also suffered from genital injuries and had bite marks on his ears.