KUALA LUMPUR: Police have not been able to trace the whereabouts of M. Indira Gandhi’s daughter, who was abducted by her ex-husband in 2008.
Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Mohd Khalid Ismail said it was premature for him to comment further as the case is still being monitored and investigated.
“This case occurred some time ago, and I have been informed that the court has granted custody of the child to the mother.
“We are still trying to trace the whereabouts of the child.
“For now, we have yet to establish where they are,” he told reporters at Bukit Aman today.
He added that the police are also providing regular updates to the courts on the case.
Khalid was responding to comments made by former chief justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who said that police should have no issue finding Indira Gandhi’s daughter, who was abducted by her ex-husband in 2008.
She said that she personally thinks there would be no strong obstacle for the police to locate the child, Prasana Diksa.
“I really do not know the reason why until now, more than 10 years down the line, the (child) has not been located and returned to the mother.
“But this is really beyond the judiciary. It is entirely up to the police to execute the warrant of arrest that has been issued by the civil court against the father, as well as the recovery order and the custody order.
“Unfortunately, I’m not able to answer as to whether this was deliberate or intentional,” she said during a question and answer session at the Allianz Centre for Governance’s (ACG) Distinguished Speaker Series forum titled “The Sanctity of Malaysia’s Federal Constitution: Threats Solutions and Impact on National Governance.”
In 2014, Tengku Maimun was the dissenting judge on a three-member Court of Appeal panel which overturned a High Court order compelling the inspector-general of police to recover Indira’s youngest daughter, Prasana Diksa.
In 2016, the Federal Court reversed this ruling and instructed the inspector-general of police to execute the warrant of committal against Indira’s former husband after finding him guilty of contempt by refusing to hand over Prasana.
On Aug 11, the Court of Appeal reserved its decision on Indira’s appeal in her suit against former inspector-general of police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador and the government for allegedly failing to arrest her former husband and return her daughter.
The court set Aug 25 for case management.
Indira’s lawyer, Rajesh Nagarajan, had said the police had failed to enforce the committal warrant according to the law.
He said police did not file any affidavits updating the court on their efforts to find K. Pathmanathan, who converted to Islam and took the name Riduan Abdullah.
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