M Indira Gandhi and her two older children leading a procession to the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.
KUALA LUMPUR: More than 100 individuals from various NGOs gathered in front of the Sogo shopping complex here to urge the police to locate M Indira Gandhi’s daughter, Prasana Diksa, who was abducted by her former husband in 2008.
The group, which also included a deputy minister, gathered at 10.30am before marching to the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters carrying placards reading “Where is my child, IGP?”, “Prasana has the right to be with her mother,” and “IGP, return my child.”
The group also chanted “Arrest Riduan,” “Return Prasana,” and “PDRM, be fair.”
Individuals from various NGOs and members of the public gather in front of the Sogo shopping complex in Kuala Lumpur to urge the police to locate M Indira Gandhi’s daughter.
Indira and her two older children led the procession and pushed Prasana’s old baby stroller with her teddy bear, which Indira said she planned to give to Inspector-General of Police Khalid Ismail at Bukit Aman to signify her love for her daughter.
Indira’s former husband, Riduan Abdullah, is the subject of an arrest warrant since 2018 for failing to return Prasana to his ex-wife after he lost a legal battle over custody and religious conversion of their children.
Among those at the gathering today were deputy law and institutional reform minister M Kulasegaran, former law minister Zaid Ibrahim, former Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan, and social activist Marina Mahathir.
In a short speech before the march to Bukit Aman, Zaid said Indira’s case remains unresolved for 16 years because the authorities continue to treat it as a religious dispute rather than a family and custody matter.
Zaid said cases like Indira’s would continue to recur as long as civil court orders were not respected.
“The shariah court won’t accept the decision of the civil court, and the police won’t enforce the civil court order. This is what has been happening,” he said.
“Create a new system, a new court, to take care of mothers and fathers of different faiths who are separated. This is so that they can fight for custody before an impartial court.”
Riduan had converted the couple’s three children to Islam in 2009 without Indira’s consent and had sought custody through the shariah court.
On Jan 29, 2018, the Federal Court ruled that the conversions were null and void, and the court ordered the IGP to arrest Riduan for defying the High Court’s directive to return the youngest daughter to her mother.
The Ipoh High Court yesterday ordered the police to widen the search for Riduan, with Justice Norsharidah Awang stating that the search should be extended across the entire country.
