KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 — M. Indira Gandhi’s dream of reuniting with her youngest daughter after four years of separation was dashed today when her estranged husband, who was ordered by an Ipoh High Court to turn up with the five-year-old this afternoon, was a no-show.

Instead, only his lawyer Hartim Musa appeared in court to make an application on behalf of his absent client to recuse the presiding judge, Judicial Commissioner Lee Swee Seng, from hearing today’s proceedings.

“He said he has heard both the content of this application therefore not proper for him to hear (today’s case),” Indira’s lawyer M. Kulasegaran told The Malay Mail Online when contacted here.

Earlier this month, Lee had ordered Muslim convert Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah to turn up in court with five-year-old Prasana Diksa today if he wanted to proceed with his application to stay the High Court’s decision on the conversion of the couple’s three children.

On July 25 this year, the Ipoh High Court finally quashed the conversion certificates of Prasana and her two older siblings, Tevi Darsiny, 16, and Karan Dinish, 15, declaring it unconstitutional to unilaterally force a minor to embrace a different faith.

In a bid to keep the children Muslims, Mohd Ridzuan and the Perak religious authorities later appealed the decision with the Court of Appeal, and sought a court order to temporarily stay the High Court decision pending the appellate court’s disposal of the matter.

The stay application was to be heard today.

Speaking to The Malay Mail Online when contacted this evening, the distraught Indira said she had already known that her ex-husband would not show up in court but had kept her hopes up.

“His lawyer wanted to recuse the judge, that’s the main topic today and the judge gave January 24 for him to once again bring Prasana,” she said.

When Mohd Ridzuan failed to show up, the kindergarten teacher, who had arrived in court at 2.30pm with her mother and her two older children, Tevi and Karan, was not surprised.

But Indira is no stranger to such disappointments.

“We’ve already put him for contempt of court. We couldn’t locate him so it’s quite difficult to give him the court summons,” she said.

The single mother also said it has been “impossible” to locate him as there was no exact address in the court affidavits but noted that he is likely somewhere in Kelantan.

“He’s a bit, in a way, a coward, he didn’t want to come to court.

“I really hope one day he will come with Prasana, it’s been too long, five years,” she lamented.

She pointed out that even Mohd Ridzuan’s lawyer had said that it was difficult to contact him but promised today to advise his client to appear on the next court date.

“If he comes, it’s good at least we’ll see Prasana, and if we get her back...,” she trailed off.

“Everyone was asking me today if I saw Prasana. No matter what happens, we cross our fingers that we’ll get to see Prasana one day, no matter how long it takes,” Indira said.

She accused her ex-husband of using their youngest child as a means to shirk his responsibilities, adding she has no idea if he would do his best to ensure Prasana is well looked after.

“Every day she is in our prayers, hopefully in good health. At the moment, that’s all I can tell you,” she said, pointing out the last time she saw her youngest child was in 2009, briefly in court.

“There was no conversation. She couldn’t recognise me, I know because she was only a one-year-six-month-old baby when she came to court.”

She said her two other girls are hoping to see their youngest sister as well.

In the drama that first unfolded at the couple’s home in First Garden, Ipoh, on April 3, 2009, Mohd Ridzuan, then known as K. Pathmanathan, made off with then one-year-old Prasana and the birth certificates of all three children, which he later used to convert them to Islam.

His dramatic actions set the stage for a highly-publicised legal battle between the couple, and resulted in the March 11, 2010, decision by an Ipoh High Court to grant full custody of the three children to Indira.

But apart from the brief glimpse of then 21-month-old Prasana draped in a Muslim headscarf in court two months prior to the decision, Indira never saw her daughter.

Her husband allegedly went into hiding and was at one point believed to be in Kota Baru, Kelantan, but attempts by Indira and Kulasegaran to find the elusive man proved futile.