“This is not merely a legal case. It is a humanitarian crisis involving a child, a mother’s suffering, and the repeated failure of institutions to comply with court orders and deliver closure,” the Seputeh MP said in a statement.
“The Indira Gandhi case is no longer only about a missing child, it is about public trust, respect for the rule of law, and whether ordinary Malaysians can rely on our institutions to uphold justice without fear or favour. The Federal Court has spoken clearly, yet its orders remain unenforced after all these years,” Kok said.
The Federal Court had in 2009 ordered police to arrest Indira’s ex-husband for abducting their daughter, Prasana Diksa, then 11 months old, after he lost custody over their three children and the forced religious conversion of the children was declared null and void.
An arrest warrant was issued in 2018 against the former husband, Riduan Abdullah.
Kok urged the senior leadership of the police force to meet Indira personally, to demonstrate compassion, responsibility, and the seriousness that the case demands. “Sixteen years of suffering is already an injustice. It is time for decisive action and genuine empathy,” she said.
She said if a promised meeting between Indira and the inspector-general of police does not occur within the set timeframe, “then Malaysians are justified in demanding stronger accountability from the police leadership”.
Yesterday, more than 100 people from several activist groups held a rally in Kuala Lumpur demanding a meeting with the IGP, Khalid Ismail, to urge the police to locate Prasana.
After waiting four hours for Khalid to appear, they dispersed following an assurance from deputy law and institutional reform minister M Kulasegaran, who had attended the rally, that he would arrange a meeting between them and Khalid.
The case began when Riduan converted their three children to Islam in 2009 without her consent. He had sought custody of the children through the shariah court. Indira took to the civil courts, and the case wound its way through the system until Jan 29, 2018 when the Federal Court ruled that the conversions were null and void; the court ordered the IGP to arrest Riduan for defying a High Court directive to return Prasana to her mother.
The courts also ordered the police to provide updates on their progress. On Friday, the High Court in Ipoh, hearing an affidavit from Indira that Riduan and her daughter were in Kelantan, ordered the police to widen the search, with Justice Norsharidah Awang stating that it should be extended across the entire country.