IPOH, December 14 — A new administration featuring lawmakers once sympathetic to her cause has given Hindu mother M. Indira Gandhi renewed hope of finally being reunited with her youngest child, Prasana Diksa, whom her ex-husband abducted 13 years ago.
Noting that Prasana Diksa will turn 15 next year, Indira said she was optimistic Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his administration would help enforce the court order she previously secured compelling the police to locate and return her daughter to her.
“I’m having very high hope of this unity government and hoping no favouritism will take place. I’m putting my hopes on our 10th prime minister.
“This is not about a matter of religion, but purely about a relationship between a mother and daughter, which this nation has neglected,” she told Malay Mail.
Now 46, Indira said that she has been waiting so long to see her daughter again, and feared Prasarana may no longer even recognise her and her two siblings.
“This is brutal and injustice to myself and to my child. She doesn’t even know if she has a family here. My only hope is to meet her and not to question of her religion or faith,” she said.
With justice still undelivered, Indira said the long delay in recovering her daughter by the authorities reflects how minorities are being treated in the country.
Despite various setbacks in meeting the ministers and authorities from past administrations, Indira said she has not lost faith in the process and hoped to be able to secure a meeting with the new home minister, Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
However, she acknowledged that this could take time as the minister would need to settle in.
Indira’s case is arguably the most significant concerning the unilateral conversion of minors in Malaysia.
In her legal battle for her children, Indira pursued the matter all the way to the Federal Court, where she succeeded in securing a decision annulling the unilateral conversion of her children and effectively made the practice unlawful and unconstitutional.
Yet, her watershed legal victory has been scant consolation for Indira, as authorities have made no headway in returning Prasana to her since the girl’s abduction in 2009.
That year, Indira’s ex-husband, Muhammad Riduan, formerly known as K. Pathmanathan, embraced Islam and converted all three of his children with Indira on April 2 the same year without her knowledge. They had been raised as Hindus. Aside from Prasana, Indira also has two children, Tevi Darsiny and Karan Dinish, who were both adults now.
Muhammad Ridhuan abducted Prasana in 2009, when she was just 11 months’ old, shortly after converting to Islam.
After a protracted court battle, the Federal Court in January 2018 finally ruled that the unilateral conversions of Indira’s children were unlawful and unconstitutional.
In the interim period, Indira also obtained a mandamus order from the High Court in Ipoh on May 30, 2014, compelling the police to search for, retrieve and reunite Prasana with her mother who last saw her when she was 18 months’ old.
The mandamus also compelled the police to enforce a committal order to arrest and commit Muhammad Riduan Abdullah, to prison, which is still pending to date.
However, the police have yet to recover Prasana and return her to Indira despite the decision and a previous mandamus order she secured compelling the IGP to execute the recovery.
This led to Indira filing contempt proceedings as the police over their failure to comply with the mandamus order.
Separately, Indira also filed a RM100 million civil suit against the inspector-general of police, the Royal Malaysia Police and the government after the authorities failed recover Prasana.
Her saga has now spanned five prime ministers from Datuk Seri Najib Razak to Anwar now, and six inspectors-general starting from Tan Sri Musa Hassan to the current holder of the post, Tan Sri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani.
DAP’s Ipoh Barat MP, M. Kulasegaran, played a prominent role in the early years of Indira’s legal battle, during which he had represented her pro bono.
When he was part of the previous Pakatan Harapan administration, Kulasegaran had said there were moves “behind the scenes” to assist her.
