The Malaysian Insight

M. INDIRA Gandhi’s RM100 million civil suit against Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador will be heard at the Kuala Lumpur High Court next year, said the former kindergarten teacher’s lawyer.

Rajesh Nagarajan told The Malaysian Insight the trial will definitely be held next year but the date will depend on the judge.

“We are hoping to have it (trial) by the middle of next year but because of Covid-19 there is a massive backlog of cases. So, it might be a bit delayed,” he said.

Indira’s lawyers had filed a civil suit against Hamid for his failure to locate her ex-husband Muhammad Riduan Abdullah, and to be reunited with her daughter Prasana Diksa.

Indira had planned to stage a hunger strike in front of Bukit Aman on September 11 because of police’s failure to update her on her daughter’s whereabouts.

On September 1, Hamid had agreed to meet Indira to brief her on the status of Prasana.

However, the meeting with Hamid, which was set for September 4, took place without him because he had to attend an urgent meeting in Putrajaya.

Rajesh said they had filed the statement of claim on November 18, which the defence, led by the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), replied on December 2.

Indira’s team put in their reply on Wednesday.

“We will then go for case management on December 30. After that, we will get directions from the court to file our pre-trial case management documents.

“We expect to get a trial date within two to three months later,” he said.

On Thursday, the Ipoh High Court ordered the AGC to submit a detailed report on police efforts to track down Indira’s former husband and her 12-year-old daughter, as ordered by the court in 2014.

Rajesh said judicial commissioner Bhupindar Singh gave the AGC, which represented the police, three weeks to file 79 affidavits on measures taken to locate Riduan and Prasana.

He said instructions were given as police had ignored a court order issued on May 30, 2014 and failed to submit any affidavit since then, either to the court or to Indira’s legal team.

“They (police) had to file a sworn affidavit each month and this order was given six years ago.

“To date they have not filed any. Now they owe Indira 79 affidavits,” the lawyer said.

Rajesh said police would be held in contempt of court should they fail to present the affidavits.

Riduan, a Muslim convert, was ordered by the high court in 2014 to return Prasana to her mother. He did not obey the order, leading the Ipoh High Court to issue a mandamus order compelling police to arrest him.

Riduan snatched Prasana and the couple’s two other children after he unilaterally converted them to Islam.

The court granted Indira custody of the three children after finding their conversion unlawful. – December 19, 2020.