PRASANA Diksa, the girl who was snatched from her mother when she was a baby, turns 14 today.

Her mother, Indira Gandhi, posted an emotional birthday message to her missing daughter, on Facebook.

Indira, who has not seen her daughter for 13 years, hopes for Prasana to be safe and that one day they would be reunited.

“It’s the time of year again that my silence turns into tears! It’s Prasana Diksa’s 14th birthday,” she wrote.

“I hope she will be blessed with happiness and grace. She must be a beautiful girl now. How I wish I knew how she looks. Not once had I had the chance to celebrate her birthday.”

Indira, a kindergarten teacher, has been fighting the system for 13 years to be reunited with her daughter, who was taken away from her by her ex-husband, Muhammad Riduan Abdullah, when the girl was 11 months old.

He converted Prasana and her older two siblings into Islam without Indira’s knowledge.

“I wish I could buy a gift for her, something that she likes. I want to share many things with her. If only she knows how much we love her,” Indira said.

“Her akka (elder sister) Tevi Darsiny and anne (elder brother) Karan Dinish would have made a surprise birthday for her, if only she knew us.

“It is painful to wish her like this. I hope someone or anyone who knows her, would convey my birthday wishes to her.

“Please tell her I will wait till my last breath.”

In 2018, in a landmark ruling, the Federal Court quashed the unilateral conversion of Indira’s children. 

Indira is now waiting for Riduan to be located and Prasana to be returned to her as ordered by the court.

Riduan is now a fugitive for violating the Ipoh High Court’s order in 2014 to return Prasana, leading to a writ of mandamus by the court compelling the inspector-general of police (IGP) to arrest him.

Six IGPs have taken up the case but none have succeeded in finding Prasana and Riduan.

Federal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) director Abdul Jalil Hassan in a brief update recently had said the people involved in this case are still being traced, adding that police will issue an update on the latest development.

Former IGP Abdul Hamid Bador had said the police knew of the whereabouts of Riduan and wanted him to come forward to settle the matter. Hamid said the police were working through an intermediary, but claimed that extraditing Riduan was complicated.

This led to Indira filing a RM100 million suit against Hamid in 2020, alleging that the then IGP had deliberately and negligently disregarded a mandamus issued by the Federal Court, by failing to investigate or take appropriate action to return Prasana.

Indira Gandhi Action Team chairman Arun Doraisamy today told The Malaysian Insight there was still a reward of RM50,000 to anyone with useful information on Prasana’s whereabouts.

“Yes. The reward offer is still there for anyone with information about Prasana,” he said.

Despite her victories in court, which decision has set a precedent for Indira’s similar conversion cases, Arun said Prasana continued to be denied a mother’s care and her right to grow up as a Hindu.

Meanwhile, Arun said progress had been made on the the stalled Indira Gandhi Justice Walk.

He said if everything went as planned, the event would take place in early June.

“We are just finalising certain things, in terms of logistics and some other stuff. If everything goes well, then by early June it is,” he said.

Indira was to have embarked on a 12-day walk of 350km in November 2020 from Sungai Petani to Putrajaya, where she was to deliver letters to the prime minister as well as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

However, the plan was put on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic. – April 8, 2022.