HINDU MOM DENIED JUSTICE: IGP gets stay order to arrest Muslim dad, return child

KUALA LUMPUR - The national police chief has obtained an order from a higher court staying the High Court order that instructed him to return a Hindu mother’s child in a custody tussle.

M. Indira Gandhi’s lawyer M. Kulasegaran said in a statement today that his client would challenge the ex-parte stay order that a single Court of Appeal judge had granted to Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar without a hearing.

“The AG’s decision to move the court and obtain an ex parte order is only going to delay matters while causing serious prejudice to the welfare of Prasana Diksa and Indira Gandhi and create a great disservice to the administration of justice,” said Kulasegaran, using the initials for the Attorney-General.

“Had the Court heard us, it might have come to the conclusion that the application was baseless. The AG must convince Malaysians that ex-parte applications such as these are being made for the interest of the public and not for any ulterior motive,” he added.

Kulasegaran said the Court of Appeal has fixed September 25 for the inter parte hearing of his client’s challenge of the stay order.

Last Friday, the Ipoh High Court issued a mandamus order compelling the IGP to find and return Indira’s six-year-old child Prasana, who was taken away from her mother five years ago, within seven days or risk being cited for contempt.

High Court Judge Lee Swee Seng had refused the Attorney-General’s Chambers’ request to stay the order.

After Indira won full custody of her three children in the Ipoh High Court in 2010, the same court issued a recovery order in her favour.

The civil court also cited her ex-husband Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah, a Muslim convert, for contempt on May 30 and issued a warrant to arrest and jail him, unless he gave up the child that he had taken away in 2009.

Prasana is now believed to be in Kota Baru with Mohd Ridzuan, while her two older siblings are with Indira, who has also managed to get the Ipoh High Court to quash Mohd Ridzuan’s unilateral conversion of the three children to become Muslims.

In May this year, the Ipoh High Court also annulled the Shariah courts’ 2009 order granting Mohd Ridzuan custody rights to the three children. -Malay Mail