KUALA LUMPUR -- The tug-of-love for the three-year-old daughter of a drug addict ended temporarily yesterday when the Juvenile Court granted custody of the girl to a relative.

However, the "uncle," who is related to the addict's sister, was only given one month's temporary custody by magistrate Syafeera Mohd Said. After that, the court will review the situation and decide whether the man is a fit guardian. As for the girl's father, he admitted himself to a private rehabilitation centre in Petaling Jaya as promised.

Hopefully, this will lead to a happy ending of this father and child saga which first caught the nation's attention on Monday when it was reported that the addict would bring along his daughter to the backlanes of Jalan Ipoh to get his fix.

After the court decision, Federal Territory Welfare Department director N.M. Pillai told The Star that the department would monitor the girl's situation for the next month. He said her case would be brought to court on June 26 for a final decision as to whether she should remain with her family or be sent to a welfare home.

Pillai said the family members, including her father and aunt, took the girl to the department as agreed at 8.30am yesterday. He said the officers interviewed the family to evaluate their background and determine whether they were suitable to care for the child.

"We were satisfied that the 'uncle' was suitable. More importantly, the child is familiar with the uncle and this was also the father's request to the court," he said.

The press were kept away from the hearing.

Two Shelter Home staff also came to the court to submit their offer to take care of the child but could not do so as they were unable to obtain information on the proceedings.

They left after hearing that the case was over.

On why the Welfare Department did not call for the home to submit its appeal, Pillai said: "This has nothing to do with Shelter Home because the father requested for his family members to have custody."

Shelter Home chairman James Nayagam said the home had hoped to take care of the girl.

The father had been to the same rehabilitation centre in 1993 but now seemed more determined to kick his habit. His sister accompanied him to the centre at 12.30pm. "After reading about his problems over the past few days, we got in touch with him and convinced him to return to the centre," said a spokesman who requested that the centre not be named.

He said the centre did not expect the father to pay for treatment as "all we want is for him to really want to recover and be a good person again."

He also appealed to the media not to approach the man for interviews. "Let him rest now," he said, adding that the rehabilitation programme would take about 18 months.

A drama unfolded on Wednesday with the Welfare Department taking away the girl after the man tried to surrender her to Shelter Home. However, both were later allowed to return home for the night when their relatives intervened.