Court orders IGP to arrest Indira Gandhi’s ex-hubby and find child

IPOH: The High Court here has granted kindergarten teacher M. Indira Gandhi a mandamus order to compel Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to arrest her Muslim convert ex-husband and to find her youngest child.

In a landmark ruling, Justice Lee Swee Seng said the order was to be executed within seven days from Friday, although he expressed hope that Indira Gandhi could be reunited with six-year-old Prasana Diksa as early as Malaysia Day.

“The public has an expectation that the IGP, being the chief law enforcer will execute his duties fairly and firmly without fear or favour under the Police Act.

“And that as we celebrate Malaysia Day, we can affirm that we are a country where the rule of law prevails,” Justice Lee said.

In April 2009, Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah reportedly took away Prasana Diksa and converted the child and her siblings Tevi Darsiny, then 12, and Karan Dinish, then 11, to Islam without their mother’s knowledge.

Mohd Ridzuan, formerly known as K. Patmanathan, had also obtained custody of all three children from the Syariah High Court.

The High Court later granted Indira Gandhi custody of the children and, in March 2010, ordered Mohd Ridzuan to return Prasana Diksa to the mother.

On May 30 this year, Justice Lee issued a warrant of arrest against Mohd Ridzuan for contempt of court after he repeatedly failed to hand over the child to the mother.

Indira Gandhi then filed the application for a mandamus order when the country’s top cop insisted on taking the middle path in cases where the disputing parties had obtained separate orders from the civil and Syariah courts.

Justice Lee said until the orders were stayed, set aside, varied or reversed, they remained valid court orders emanating from a court of proper jurisdiction.

“The IGP’s stand is that he’s caught in a conundrum of two diametrically opposed custody orders.

“His stand is that he should not be required to act at all and should let the parties sort out their differences in a manner that they may deem fit.

“This argument, taken to its logical conclusion, would mean that in a case of such an instance, the public can expect that the police would not act as both orders are equally valid and no offence has been committed by anyone not wanting to deliver the child to the other parent.

“Parties will just have to accept that the order of this court can safely be ignored and disregarded with impunity.

“That, unfortunately, can produce a very undesirable state of affairs where parties then will resort to their own means to enforce the law,” said Justice Lee.

He added that the IGP was entitled to have his personal views expressed but when it came to the execution of his duties as prescribed under the Police Act, he must put personal differences and opinions aside.

“There are no two ways about it. Otherwise, no one will have any respect for courts established under the Federal Constitution,” he said.

The mandamus order, he continued, was issued so that the IGP would not have any doubt that it was the High Court’s orders that he must enforce and not that of the Syariah Court.

Justice Lee later dismissed an application by senior federal counsel Noor Hisham Ismail to stay the mandamus order.

Speaking to reporters outside the court, Indira Gandhi said all she wanted was to have her daughter back.

“I hope this is it. I hope this is going to be the time I get to see her,” she said.