KUALA LUMPUR: Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Datuk Seri Abdul Hamid Bador said today “new elements” would be added to the task force responsible to locate Hindu mother M. Indira Gandhi’s ex-husband, Muhammad Riduan Abdullah, and their daughter Prasana Diksa.
“I have met several personnel from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and told them that something needs to be done,“ he told reporters after launching a police reading habit campaign at a police college here.
“I want the court order to be fulfilled and the police are enforcers of the court order. We will add more elements to the team assigned to locate the father and daughter.”
Hamid said he would meet Indira to talk about the progress made to trace her daughter.
“I am ready to meet with the mother. I am taking a personal interest in the case. I understand the mother’s agony and the psychological trauma faced by the daughter. But give me time and space to look at the case.”
Indira is engaged in a 10-year court battle to nullify the unilateral conversion of her children to Islam.
Indira’s husband converted to Islam in March 2009 and changed his name from Pathmanathan to Muhammad Riduan. He also had their three children, a 12-year-old girl, 11-year-old boy and Prasana, then only 11 months old, embrace Islam.
Six months later the syariah court granted custody of their three children to Riduan.
The following year, the High Court granted Indira custody of the children but Riduan disappeared with Prasana.
In March 2014, the High Court granted an order to compel the IGP to search for Prasana, but then IGP Datuk Seri Khalid Abu Bakar decided not to execute the order because the police would be going against the syariah court order to grant custody to Riduan.
In January last year, the Federal Court affirmed a High Court decision that the conversion of Indira’s children from Hinduism to Islam was unlawful without her consent.
Last week, she lodged a police report alleging that Riduan was hiding with the help of followers of Zakir Naik and Muslim separatists in southern Thailand.
Zakir, a controversial Islamic preacher is, himself, being sought by the Indian authorities over allegations of money laundering.
However, Hamid said, the police did not have any leads on Indira’s claim.
On another matter, Hamid confirmed that a Malaysian was detained by Kalimantan, Indonesia, for a drug-related offence and the Malaysian police are in touch with their Indonesian counterparts.
“I was only informed that a man from Tawau, Sabah has been detained in Kalimantan.”
Early today, photographs linking a member of a prominent political party being detained in Indonesia went viral on social media.
