KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 ― The Indira Gandhi Action Team (Ingat) has called off a planned hunger strike after Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador agreed to meet them this Thursday instead of just the Hindu mother alone.
The team, led by lawyer Arun Dorasamy, said in a statement that the meeting will give them the chance to share their grievances and obtain all new information pertaining to the case, now a decade old.
“Ingat is very pleased with the goodwill gesture from IGP and PDRM,” the group said.
“We are looking forward to a complete discussion and briefing on the investigative updates since April 17, 2019 the assertion of the Special Task Force (STF) along with the opportunity to meet and greet the new officer in charge of the investigation.”
Ingat had initially planned the hunger strike for September 11 to protest what they alleged to be government indifference towards the plight of M. Indira Gandhi, who has been separated with her daughter that was kidnapped by her fugitive Muslim convert ex-husband.
Indira, who will be attending the meeting, will be accompanied by prominent lawyers Datuk Ambiga Sreenivasan and Sachpreetraj Singh Sohanpal from Messrs. Raj & Sach, and Arun himself.
Arun told Malay Mail that the team will seek clarification on the Ministry of Home Affairs’ recent Parliament updates about the case.
The lawyer said Ingat is ready to share intelligence on the investigation upon a full satisfactory briefing from STF.
Ingat is also seeking a meeting with the new officers assigned to the case, hoping it would ease communication between them.
“We hope this meeting will bring the case and the saga to a foreclosure as soon as possible. 11 years, five IGPs, three governments still unable to track or return Prasana as per the Federal Court Order?” it asked.
“We ought to question if we are serious in delivering justice by the means of rule of law or we are trying to dodge the responsibility to bend for some specific interest.”
Last month, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin claimed Indira’s ex-husband Muhammad Ridhuan Abdullah was believed to be living abroad and regularly relocating to avoid detection.
Indira’s daughter, Prasana Diksa, was taken by her ex-husband in 2009 when she was just 11 months old, shortly after converting to Islam. He had also converted their three children to Islam without Indira’s knowledge.
After a protracted court battle that spanned years, the Federal Court ruled in January 2018 that the unilateral conversions of Indira’s children were unlawful.
Despite the ruling, the police have yet to recover Prasana and return her to Indira.
Instead, Abdul Hamid had previously said the police are looking for an amicable solution where both, Indira and Ridhuan, will get the benefit of “some form of joint custody” despite an Ipoh High Court ruling in 2010 granting full custody of all children to Indira.
