IGP orders arrest of Muslim convert who failed to return child

IPOH: Police are finally going after Muslim convert Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah for defying a High Court order to hand over his daughter Prasana Diksa to his estranged Hindu wife M. Indira Gandhi.
Perak police chief Datuk Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani confirmed today that state police have been instructed by the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to track down Mohd Ridzuan, who was formerly known as K. Pathmanathan, and have Prasana handed over to her mother.
The impetus for the police action was the serving of a court order by Indira’s lawyer, M. Kulasegaran, on Khalid a few days ago, directing police to locate and hand over Prasana to her mother.
The move was taken after Khalid said on June 10 that police would not act on orders from either the civil or Shariah court in interfaith custody cases, but would take the middle ground to avoid being sandwiched between the two court systems.
“We are working on a lead ... the man is believed to be in Kelantan,” said Acryl Sani, adding that state police are coordinating their operations with other contingents, which had been also served with the court order to locate the six-year-old child, now known as Ummu Habibah.
The warrant of arrest, issued by the High Court on May 30, was served on Ipoh district police by Kulasegaran, who also served a committal order issued by the High Court committing Mohd Ridzuan to the Tapah prison until he returns Prasana Diksa to her mother.
Mohd Ridzuan had left the matrimonial home on April 3, 2009 with Prasana who was then only 11 months old, and the birth certificates of the couple’s three children, and later used the birth documents to convert the trio to Islam.
He later obtained a custody order for the children from the Syariah Court in September 2009, but Indira, a kindergarten teacher, subsequently won full custody of the three children from the Ipoh High Court on March 11, 2010.
On July 25 last year, the Ipoh High Court annulled the conversion certificates of Prasana, her elder sister Tevi Darsiny, 16, and brother Karan Dinish, 15, declaring that it was unconstitutional to force minors to be converted to a different faith without the consent of both parents.
On May 30 this year, the Ipoh High Court also ruled that the Syariah Court had overstepped its jurisdiction and thus the custody order it granted to Mohd Ridzuan was “null and void” .
Judicial Commissioner Lee Swee Seng gave Mohd Ridzuan a week to hand Prasana over to Indira, or face imprisonment, but the father defied the order and did not do so upon expiry of the deadline, which was at noon on June 6.