KUALA LUMPUR – Former kindergarten teacher M. Indira Gandhi hopes to secure a meeting with Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to resolve her long-standing tussle over the recovery of her daughter.
Arun Dorasamy, chairman of the Indira Gandhi Action Team (Ingat), said they sent a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office on May 26 seeking an appointment with Muhyiddin.
“We have exhausted all our attempts to reach out to the inspector-general of police. There has been five of them, and none managed to solve the case,” he told a virtual press conference today.
“We believe that the next level would be the Home Ministry and prime minister himself. Hence, we’ve sent a letter to PMO, and CC-ed it to the ministry as well.”
Despite Covid-19 restrictions forcing the postponement of a long-proposed 350km “justice walk” from a northern state to Kuala Lumpur, Arun said both Indira Gandhi and Ingat have not abandoned the idea.
“We are determined to proceed with the walk once the restrictions are lifted. The time and date will be set accordingly. We still need to send a message that justice must be served.”
The updates come after the high court here today set July 16 to deliver its decision on the IGP, police, Home Ministry and government’s bid to strike out Indira Gandhi’s suit against them for failing to arrest her ex-husband, Muhammad Riduan Abdullah, and recover her daughter, Prasana Diksa, as per the Federal Court’s order.
Protracted delays by police to recover the child and return her to her mother led to Indira Gandhi’s lawyers filing a RM100 million civil suit last November against the IGP for failing to act appropriately based on the 2018 ruling.
Her counsel, Rajesh Nagarajan, confirmed the outcome to reporters following online proceedings before judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.
The court had earlier fixed today to hear, via Zoom, submissions by the concerned parties over the strike-out application filed on January 14.
Indira Gandhi was represented by lawyers Rajesh and Sachpreetraj Singh, while senior federal counsel Andi Razalijaya A. Dadi and Siti Rafidah Zainuddin represented the government and police.
On January 31 last year, then IGP Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador reportedly said the force was aware of Prasana Diksa’s whereabouts, and was working on arranging a meeting between the girl’s parents to settle the issue in an amicable manner.
Prasana Diksa is believed to be with Riduan. She was taken by him before his conversion to Islam in 2009, when she was just 11 months old.
Riduan, whose name was K. Pathmanathan before his conversion, had converted his three children with Indira Gandhi to Islam without her knowledge.
This sparked a lengthy court battle that finally saw the apex court ruling in January 2018 that the children’s unilateral conversion was unlawful.
The other two children – Tevi Darsiny, 22, and Karan Dinish, 21 – remain with their mother.
Despite an arrest warrant for Riduan issued by the high court in 2014, police have yet to locate him. He was last believed to be living in a neighbouring country. –The Vibes, June 22, 2021
