By Elena Chong
A GRASSROOTS leader who was troubled by allegations of missing money from a temple which he headed was found hanged in a locked storeroom of his home in Upper Bukit Timah last December.
Loh Meng Hai, 59, had left a suicide note two days before his death on Dec 29 saying that he deserved to die and that he was 'responsible for the cheating case''.
At Tuesday's coroner's inquiry into his death, the court heard that his son, Mr Louis Loh, 29, broke the storeroom at the rear of their Chun Tin Road home and found him hanged at about 6.40am that day.
Investigation showed that Loh started losing sleep when the Commercial Affairs Department's investigation into a complaint of misappropriated funds from the Bukit Timah Tua Pek Kong Temple was underway. But the court heard that no probe had started against Loh then nor had he been called for an interview. His son told police that Loh seldom talked to them about his temple or personal problems and kept everything to himself.
A day before his death, he attended an annual general meeting of the Beauty World Centre and Bukit View MCST where he was verbally attacked by a few subsidiary proprietors over some unrelated issue. The subsidiary proprietors demanded that he apologise.
Loh became very upset and stressed after the meeting. State Coroner Eddy Tham recorded a verdict of suicide on his death.
