SINGLE mother M. Indira Gandhi, who has yet to see her missing daughter for the last 13 years despite a Federal Court order, has questioned the prime minister and the current government on why there was no task force set up to investigate her case.

Indira said that she is “fed up” with the government over the lack of effort and interest shown in tracing and recovering her daughter, Prasana Diksa, who was taken away by her estranged ex-husband K. Padmanathan.

He changed his name to Muhammad Riduan Abdullah after converting to Islam in 2009.

Prasana was taken by Riduan when she was just 11 months’ old. She turned 14 this year.

“We are tired and fed up to have to repeatedly ask the government on this (task force) because each time a different answer is given, which is not relevant in finding Prasana.

“It has been 13 years since she was taken away from me. As a mother, all I want to know is where Prasana is and her wellbeing,” the former kindergarten teacher told The Malaysian Insight.

Indira’s call for a task force came after Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s decision last year to form one special committee and two task forces to investigate the unsolved death of fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim, allegations made by former attorney-general Tommy Thomas in his book and also the Batu Puteh dispute.

In 2009, Riduan had unilaterally converted his three children, including Prasana to Islam using their birth certificates and without Indira’s consent and knowledge.

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

The apex court upheld the nullification of the religious conversion by only one parent and affirmed custody to the mother.

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.

Indira said the government is just merely giving lip service when it comes to her case, adding there is no concrete action from them.

“We don’t want this to be a political issue. We don’t want to turn it into a racial or religious issue.

“We are just asking anyone – be the prime minister or the public – whoever knows Prasana, to find her and give us information.

“I’m ready to collaborate with anyone but everyone is just saying things and there is no action taken,” she said.

Indira claimed that the government, including the police, seemed to be disinterested in her case.

“Police, which should be our hope, are failing us. Despite the court ruling, which says Prasana should be with me, police have yet to bring her back to me,” she said.

Back in 2019, then IGP Mohamad Fuzi Harun revealed that police had set up a special task force to locate Prasana and hand her over to Indira.

Then Bukit Aman’s criminal investigation department director Huzir Mohamed was tasked with leading the special task force.

Indira claimed that the task force, however, had not given her or the Indira Gandhi Action Team any updates since its formation.

“Police said that they have set up a task force but till date we don’t know what is happening because there is no update from them.

“This was setup by the former IGP Fuzi (Harun) and three IGPs later, there is still no updates on my daughter,” she said.

In such a situation, Indira said, that she has no other options than to file an action against the IGP and subordinates for their failure to recover her daughter.

Indira has filed a RM100 million suit against former IGP Abdul Hamid Bador for failing to locate her daughter.

Hamid, who was IGP from May 2019 until his retirement last year, said several times that he, too, wanted justice for Indira and that police were working hard to find Riduan and Prasana, whom some suspect are in southern Thailand.

Hamid, however, had also admitted to knowing Riduan’s whereabouts and was working through an intermediary, but claimed that getting him extradited was complicated.

This led to Indira filing a 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 said police are on the wrong trail as she claimed they are more concerned in locating Riduan rather than Prasana.

“All these years, they (police) are focusing on Padmanathan (Riduan). Why do I need to know about him? He has chosen his life. He’s out of my life. Let him be.

“I only want to know about my daughter but police seem to be focusing only on Padmanathan. We are not bothered about him,” she said.

Last year, Ipoh High Court judicial commissioner Bhupinder Singh assailed the police for their shoddy work, highlighting several shortfalls, in their quest to track down Riduan.

He questioned the Attorney-General’s Chambers, which represented the police, on the latter’s seriousness in locating Riduan, after the latter was found to have purchased and registered two vehicles under his name despite being still at large. – August 2, 2022.