A Malaysian coroner's court on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant against an ethnic Indian member of parliament after he continued to avoid a subpoena to testify in the inquest of a 28-year-old local Tamil actress.

Coroner Mohd Faizi Che Abu said the court was satisfied with police efforts to serve the subpoena to S Manikavasagam and the court had no choice other than issuing the warrant to compel the witness to testify. The police have been unable to serve the subpoena to Manikavasagam.

"Since there were enough evidences to show Manikavasagam was aware about the court proceedings and evasive in receiving the subpoena, it is at the court's discretion whether to issue the warrant of arrest," the judge was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency. However, the agency did not elaborate how the MP was involved in the case.

K Sujatha, the local Tamil actress, died in June, 2007, six days after she was hospitalised for allegedly drinking weed killer.

Earlier, a Forensic Department official told the court that the medical officer at Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital did not follow the right procedure when releasing Sujatha's body without post-mortem.

He said the internal inquiry carried out among doctors and other supporting staff of the hospital involved in handling Sujatha's case revealed that they had failed to comply with the procedure strictly, besides there was a miscommunication on how to handle cases involving police investigations. The inquest continues on July 7.