Documents served to set aside interim custody order

Yesterday my law firm was served with court documents to set aside the interim order we had obtained for Indria Gandghi last Friday. We would soon file affidavits to resist the attempt by Indira's husband. Aoung the reasons he wants to set aside the order are 1) the civil court has no jurisdiction 2) that he has a Syariah court order 3) that Cabinet directive on conversion issues is irrelevant 4) He also refuses to disclose his address in the affidavit on the grounds his own safety is being threataned.


In todays Star
Indira’s hubby seeks custody of children

IPOH: Kindergarten teacher M. Indira Gandhi’s husband, a Muslim convert who wants custody of his three children, has filed an application to set aside a High Court order that gave the mother interim custody of the children.

Her counsel M. Kulasegaran said lawyers for K. Patmanathan, now known by his Muslim name Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah, served the papers at his office here yesterday morning.

Kulasegaran said the application, which also sought to challenge an injunction preventing Patmanathan from entering the couple’s home, was filed at the High Court here on Wednesday.

“The matter will be heard before the High Court on May 5,” he added.

Last Friday, High Court Judicial Commissioner Ridwan Ibrahim had given interim custody of Tevi Darsiny, 12, Karan Dinish, 11, and Prasana Diksa, one, to their mother.

He had also set May 12 for an inter parte hearing of the matter to allow Patmanathan, 40, to give his side of the story.

In her supporting affidavit, Indira Gandhi had claimed that on April 4, Patmanathan stormed into their house in First Garden here and used force against her and the children before taking off with the youngest daughter and the three children’s birth certificates.

She later discovered that her husband had converted to Islam on March 11 and further claimed that her children’s schools were notified by the Syariah Department that they had been converted and now had Muslim names.

The interim custody was the first victory for 34-year-old Indira Gandhi, who is battling to get custody of the children and to ensure they remained Hindus.

A week has since passed and Indira Gandhi has yet to track down Patmanathan to get her baby back.

When asked if Patmanathan had gone to the Perak Islamic Religious Department for help, its director Datuk Sheikh Mohamah Nor Mansor Al-Hafiz said he would reserve comments until he had consulted Raja Muda Raja Dr Nazrin Shah.

“I do not want to comment as it has gone to the courts; not until I have met the Raja Muda,” he said when met at a Fatwa convention here.