KLUANG: The charred remains of a 34-year-old man were found in the driver's seat of a burnt-out car on Jalan Baru Renggam-Ulu Belitong today.
District police chief Assistant Commissioner Bahrin Mohd Noh said the seat was reclined.
"The position of the body raises suspicion, as victims would usually attempt to get out of the vehicle if it catches fire.
"Investigations are underway. We need to establish the cause of the fire to rule out arson. The postmortem will establish if the victim was conscious prior to the fire."
The deceased was identified as Shahrizan Jum. He left his house at Bukit Tongkat in Layang-Layang about 11pm yesterday without informing his family, Bahrin said.
He was unemployed and stayed in the house to take care of his ailing parents, the police officer said.
His next of kin learnt of his death from the police.
His brother-in-law, Kamarull Aizat Abdul, said there were no family conflicts and Shahrizan did not have any financial issues.
The Fire and Rescue Department received a call from a passer-by about the vehicle fire at 1.04am.
The car was almost destroyed when the firemen got to the scene.
They found Shahrizan's remains after extinguishing the fire.