KUALA LUMPUR: M Indira Gandhi’s troubles are far from over although a year has passed since she won her famous court battle against Muhammad Riduan Abdullah for custody of their three children.
Apart from pining for the youngest child, whom Riduan has refused to give up, Indira is broke and finding it hard to get a job. She claims this is because prospective employers would rather not hire someone who was mired in controversy for nine years.
She is a bankrupt because of her inability to settle a car loan and she blames this on Riduan. She said he bought the Proton Wira under her name when they were still married and then disposed of it.
In a recent interview with FMT, she also said she had not received alimony or any form of child support and she wondered if Riduan had remarried. “Maybe he has another family now, but what about me and my family? We are being left hanging.”
When she was a bride in 1996, little did she imagine her life would be turned topsy turvy as a result of marrying Riduan, then known as K Pathmanathan. Although they had just a simple Hindu ceremony and celebrated only with relatives and some friends, she was happy in the thought that she was embarking on a life full of love and happiness that would last and last.
However, 13 years later and just months after the birth of their third child, Prasana Diksa, the pressure of financial burdens had begun to take a toll on their relationship and Pathmanathan eventually moved out to live on his own.
Indira attributed the financial problems to Pathmanathan’s constant change of jobs.
Their separation did not mean he cut off contact with the family. One day, he approached Indira and suggested that they leave Hinduism for another religion, she said.
“At first, he chose Christianity, but when he figured that converting to Christianity wasn’t going to bring us anything, he suggested we convert to Islam so he could get privileges to help ease our financial problems.”
She said she told him she would rather make do with whatever money he had instead of leaving her faith.
He went ahead to embrace Islam in March 2009, changing his name in the process. A month later, he arranged for the conversion of all three children and successfully applied to the Syariah Court for his custody of them.
Riduan’s lawyer, Hatim Musa, would not confirm Indira’s allegation about Riduan’s reason for conversion.
“The problem of why he converted is up to him,” he told FMT. “I have no comment. It would be different if there were other developments in the case. The decision has been finalised.”
Hatim was referring to the Federal Court January 2018 ruling which upheld a 2010 Ipoh High Court decision that contradicted the Syariah Court decision and gave custody of the children to Indira. The apex court also ruled that unilateral conversions are illegal.
Riduan has had Prasana with him since she was eleven months old, a few weeks after his conversion.
According to Indira, he sped away with Prasana on his motorbike after assaulting her, her mother and her sisters.
It was when she went to a police station to make a report that she was given a letter that said her children had been converted to Islam. And so began her epic court battle.
Emotional support from any quarter was hard to come by through her nine years of going in and out of court, she said.
Sometimes, she added, she would get disapproving looks from people who probably thought she was attacking Islam.
Indira still wishes to reunite with Prasana despite knowing her daughter may have forgotten her.
“It’s definitely going to be a shock,” she said, fighting back tears. “I don’t know how she looks. I don’t even know if she is going to school.”
Her eldest daughter, Tevi Darsiny, is now 22 years old. She is studying Decision Design at a local university under a PTPTN loan, which was approved in her second semester in 2017 after initial difficulties attributed to insufficient documentation.
She told FMT she’s determined to help her mother out of her financial troubles.
She spoke of growing up envying her friends who had fathers to support them.
“Seeing your parents getting separated was unimaginable,” she said. “We were once a happy family.”
She too hopes to reunite with her younger sister, even if for a day.
“If I get to see her, I want to tell her I am sorry that I couldn’t do anything to stop our family from going through all the hardship,” she said. - FMT
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