The retired Chief Justice, Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said that there shouldn’t be any obstacle for the police to locate Indira Gandhi’s child, who was abducted by her former husband Mohamad Riduan Abdullah who before his conversion to Islam was known as K Pathmanathan.
Upon her divorce from her abusive husband, Indira was granted custody of their three children, but Pathmanathan kidnapped them, then illegally converted them to Islam, after he too had undergone conversion.
The conversion of his children was unlawful as it requires the consent of both parents, by law.
On August 19, Tengku Maimun gave a talk at the Allianz Centre for Governance (ACG) event in Kuala Lumpur and mentioned how PDRM was able to catch the perpetrators in the 2013 murders of cosmetics business owner, Sosilawati Lawiya and her three aides, as well as the 2006 murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.
Sosilawati and her aides’ bodies were burnt and their ashes dumped in a river.
Explosives were used to kill Altantuya and her body parts scattered, in a jungle clearing. Nevertheless, the police were able to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
Tengku Maimun wondered why Indira Gandhi’s kidnapped daughter was unable to be found, and she said that the matter was “beyond” the judiciary, and that the police have a duty to execute the recovery and custody order as well as the arrest warrant issued by the court against Indira’s former husband, Riduan.
Most Malaysian know that our Special Branch, is among the best in the world for information gathering.
So, why have the PDRM been unable to locate Riduan and then, return Prasana, to her mother?
The answer is simple, but quite complicated because the story of Indira Gandhi and her three children, is an especially sensitive one.
It involves two religions, plus a mother and father of different faiths, fighting for the custody of their child.
Pathmanathan converted to Islam, in 2009, without telling his wife, Indira.
They had been married for 24 years but when the marriage started to fail, Indira filed for divorce but this was complicated by his conversion.
Without his wife’s knowledge, he converted their three young children, by proxy.
Their youngest, a daughter, Prasana, was only 11-months old at the time.
As a Hindu, she was unable to present a challenge in the syariah court.
She is not the only person who suffers this injustice.
Other couples face similar disputes, when one of them, converts their children to Islam, without their spouse’s knowledge.
Undaunted, Indira launched her legal battle.
In 2010, the Ipoh High Court granted Indira full custody of all three children, and Riduan was ordered to return Prasana to her mother.
In 2013, the High Court allowed her to bring them up as Hindus, as it quashed the conversion of her three children.
Justice Lee Swee Seng said the conversion certificates were invalid because they were unconstitutional.
He noted that they had been issued in the absence of the children and their mother. He stressed that the children had not been asked to recite the Kalimah Shahadah (affirmation of faith).
He specifically mentioned three articles of the Federal Constitution: Article 3, which allows people to practice their religions in peace and harmony, Article 5 which guarantees the right to life and liberty, and Article 11 on the freedom of religion, which confers one the right to educate a child in one’s own faith.
Lee reminded us of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
He stated that under a Perak enactment, children had to be present, for the issuance of a certificate of conversion, and that under the Perak Syariah Law, they had to recite the Kalimah Shahadah, in the presence of an official witness.
Riduan challenged this High Court ruling and launched an appeal. However, the Ipoh High Court ordered the former IGP, Khalid Abu Bakar, to arrest Riduan and recover Prasana, but Khalid claimed that the Syariah court and High Court orders were conflicting.
Several court appearances followed after this.
In Malaysia, race and religion are used as leverage in everyday life.
In this high-profile case, conservative Muslims have unfortunately whipped themselves into a religious frenzy, with a few claiming “ownership” of the child.
This public uproar is probably what deters the police from locating Riduan, before returning the child to her mother.
If Prasana were returned to her mother, conservative Malays would demand to know how the child is brought up.
Each time Indira wins a court case against Riduan, her former husband is able to lodge an appeal. His lawyer should have access to his address, or his last known whereabouts.
Why can’t he be traced this way?
If he were to work, he would need to show his identity card, to his employer, for EPF and Socso contributions.
If Prasana were enrolled at school, or needed to go to a clinic or hospital, her IC would trigger a search at PDRM.
Locating Riduan is not impossible, as our Special Branch is world renowned for its information gathering.
Indira’s story is no longer the personal grief of a divorce and custody battle, but has morphed into something bigger, involving religion, on a national scale.
It is heartless to punish both mother and daughter.
Source:
(Mariam Mokhtar is a Freelance Writer.)
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