Team tasked with child custody case prepared with alternative measures

thesundaily
Karen Arukesamy

PETALING JAYA: A new team tasked to resolve M. Indira Gandhi's long-standing child custody tussle is prepared with alternative measures if initial recommendations hit a block.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, who is also MIC president, said this includes obtaining the consent of the Rulers, who are the leaders of the Islamic religion.

Two other Cabinet ministers in the team with Subramaniam are Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom.

It was reported that the three ministers were selected following last Wednesday's Cabinet meeting and they met Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali for the first time the next day for discussion on a solution.

Without giving details, Subramaniam said that the team is looking into patching the loopholes in the law and amending them.

He was also part of the first group formed in 2009 when Nazri was the minister in charge of law in the PM's department, whereas Jamil Khir was in the second group when Nancy Shukri took over the law portfolio.

Indira's legal dispute over child custody for three of her children, 18-year-old Tevi Darsiny, Karan Dinish, 17, and Prasana Diksa, six, has been going on since 2009.

Her former husband, Muhammad Riduan Abdullah, who is a Muslim convert, had unilaterally converted the three children then.

He had snatched the children away from Indira and obtained a permanent custody order from the Syariah Court on Sept 29, 2009.

Indira, however, subsequently won full custody of her three children in the Ipoh High Court on March 11, 2010, with the same civil court issuing a recovery order in her favour.

Despite that, Muhammad Riduan, who failed to challenge the custody order at the Federal Court, has yet to return Prasana Diksa.