Former chief justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat has questioned why police have yet to locate and return M Indira Gandhi’s daughter, despite a court order issued more than a decade ago.
“I personally think that there would be no obstacle for the police in recovering the children. Yet, more than 10 years down the line, they have not been located and returned to their mother,” she said during a dialogue on 19 August titled “The Sanctity of Malaysia’s Federal Constitution: Threats, Solutions and Impact on National Governance.”
She pointed to other high-profile cases such as the murders of Sosilawati Lawiya and Altantuya Shaariibuu, where police managed to overcome logistical challenges to apprehend and convict the perpetrators.
The judiciary, she added, is limited in enforcing its own orders, as that responsibility lies with the police.
Tengku Maimun also recalled her dissenting opinion in the Court of Appeal, which supported the Ipoh High Court’s mandamus order directing police to act. That order was later upheld by the Federal Court.
Her remarks come as the Court of Appeal prepares to deliver its decision in Indira’s RM100 million lawsuit against the Inspector-General of Police, the police, the Home Ministry and the government. On 11 August, the court postponed its ruling and fixed 25 August for case management.
Indira is appealing against a High Court decision in June 2024 which dismissed her suit, ruling that police had used all available resources to locate her ex-husband, Pathmanathan (also known as Muhammad Riduan). She claims the IGP deliberately ignored the Federal Court’s mandamus order, prolonging her separation from her daughter Prasana Diksa.
Pathmanathan unilaterally converted the couple’s three children to Islam in 2009 and obtained custody through the Syariah Court. Prasana, then 11 months old, was taken from Indira and has not been seen since. She turned 17 this year.
Indira’s two other children were returned to her in 2010, after the Ipoh High Court granted her full custody.
In 2016, the Federal Court upheld the mandamus order for police to act, and in 2018, the apex court declared the unilateral conversions null and void.
At the same forum, Tengku Maimun said politicians remain the greatest threat to the Federal Constitution and reiterated that the prime minister should not play a role in judicial appointments.
“The biggest threat would be the politicians. I’m so sorry, I think it would be best for me not to elaborate,” she said with a nervous laugh.
While she dismissed the comment with a smile, she later revealed that although she experienced no interference as a High Court or appellate judge, her time as chief justice was not as calm.
“Towards the end of my tenure as chief justice, there was a semblance of attempted interference,” she added, without giving details.