LITMUS TEST FOR LAW & ORDER: Police, Muslim dad ordered to return Seremban boy to mum

After nearly two months of separation, Hindu mother S. Deepa has been granted a fresh court order to compel not just her Muslim convert ex-husband, but also the police, to ensure the immediate return of her six-year-old son.

Deepa’s lawyer K. Shanmuga said the “recovery order”, granted last Wednesday by the Seremban High Court, has been served on both the police and Izwan Abdullah, and failure to comply would result in contempt of court proceedings.

“She has already got an order from the Seremban High Court on May 21 under the Child Act which is something called the recovery order, which directs the husband to return the child and the police to find the child and to get the child back,” he told The Malay Mail Online when contacted.

“The “recover order” was granted under Section 53 of the Child Act 2001, which directs “any person who is in a position to do so” to return the child, and authorises “any police officer to enter into any premises specified in the order and search for the child, using reasonable force if necessary”.

But Izwan, formerly a Hindu named N. Viran, has yet to return six-year-old Mithran Viran, whom he allegedly snatched by force on April 9.

When asked for the deadline for Izwan to comply with the May 21 order, Shanmuga said the return of the son should be done “immediately”.

The lawyer said he hopes Izwan would return the boy to Deepa, saying that failure to do so would result in a contempt of court offence.

“I’m hopeful that he will see sense and his lawyers will advise him to comply with the order and further action is not necessary. But if he doesn’t comply with the order, he commits contempt of court,” he said.

The Court of Appeal rejected yesterday Izwan’s application to stay a separate Seremban High Court order on April 7 granting custody rights of his two children to Deepa.

This means that the High Court’s April 7 order still has effect and Izwan would have to return the son to Deepa, Shanmuga said.

But Izwan has yet to indicate if he intends to challenge the decision at the Federal Court, he said.

On April 7, the Seremban High Court granted Deepa, 30, full custody of the couple’s two children, aged six and nine, as her marriage to Izwan, 31, in 2004 was a civil union and did not come under shariah law.

Izwan has since appealed to the Court of Appeal against the April 7 order, and Shanmuga said that this “main appeal is also going to be fixed for hearing soon”.

But 48 hours after losing the custody dispute in the civil court, Izwan ― who was earlier granted child custody by the Shariah court ― took their son from outside his estranged wife’s house in Jelebu, Negri Sembilan.

Last year, the Shariah Court awarded Izwan custody rights of his two children, whom he had converted to Islam in April without telling his wife.

The police later declined to probe the snatching of the child as an abduction case, with Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar saying that they are not worried about his safety as he is with his father.

Jelebu district police chief Setapa Yusof said last month that the police cannot investigate Izwan for abducting the son, as the two conflicting court orders over custody rights were both binding on the police. -Malaymail