Court gives specific order to police to hand over daughter to Hindu mother

M. Indira Ghandi (centre) with her children, Tevy Darsiny (right) and Karan Dinish. The Ipoh High Court has instructed the police to help return her youngest daughter Prasana Diksa from her ex-husband. – The Malaysian Insider pic, June 12, 2014.

The Ipoh High Court has issued a specific order directing police to hand over a child to her Hindu mother who is embroiled in a custody battle with her convert ex-husband.

Kindergarten teacher M. Indira Gandhi obtained the order yesterday in light of Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar’s statement that minors in inter-faith child custody cases should be placed in childcare centres without enforcing orders from both the Shariah and civil courts, in order to be fair to both parents.

Her lawyer N. Selvam said a more specific order was issued by judge Lee Swee Seng yesterday.

"We will be handing over a sealed copy of the order to police to locate and hand over the girl to the mother," he told The Malaysian Insider.

On May 30, Lee found Indira’s ex-husband Muhammad Ridzuan Abdullah guilty of contempt and gave him one week to hand over their daughter, Prasana Diksa, to Indira, or face imprisonment.

Indira had also applied for a recovery order to compel police to get Prasana (Ummu Habibah) from Ridzuan, who is said to be in Kota Baru, Kelantan.

Ridzuan defied the order when he failed to turn up in Ipoh upon expiry of the deadline to hand over the child.

Indira had filed contempt proceedings last year against Ridzuan, who was previously known as K. Patmanathan, for refusing to hand over their daughter.

In 2010, the High Court ordered custody of the three children – Tevi Darsiny, 16, Karan Dinish, 15, and Prasana, 3 – to be given to Indira.

Ridzuan has held on to Prasana since April 2009 when she was 11 months old.

The Shariah High Court in Ipoh had in 2009 given Ridzuan custody of the three children after he unilaterally converted them.

Last July, judge Lee quashed the certificates of conversion as unconstitutional.

In a similar case in Seremban, clerk S. Deepa obtained a recovery order on her son from the High Court on May 21, but police refused to locate the boy despite a sealed copy of the document having been handed to Bukit Aman.

Her son, V. Mithran, was abducted by her ex-husband Izwan Abdullah from her home in Jelebu on April 9.

The court had two days earlier granted custody of the couple's two children (Mithran and Sharmila) to Deepa on the grounds that the marriage had been solemnised under civil law.

Lawyers, in responding to Khalid’s statement, said police would be seen as abdicating their duty if they refuse to carry out the court orders directing them to locate the two children.

- TMI