Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar should step down as Inspector-General of Police if he is not prepared to uphold the law in the Seremban child abduction case and enforce the High Court order giving custody to the mother.
The failure and refusal of the Inspector-General of Police to uphold the law and to ignore the Seremban child abduction case is the height of irresponsibility for the top policeman in the country, despite the fact that a police report has been lodged by the mother S Deepa that her son was snatched by her estranged Muslim convert husband although she had won a custody through the civil court.
It is reported that her husband Izwan Abdullah has also obtained a similar order from the Syariah Court.
I agree with the former de facto law minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz that the IGP was mistaken in thinking syariah law allowed a Muslim convert to abduct his child after losing custody to the mother and that the father was clearly wrong to have taken his son without his estranged wife’s permission as the High Court has given her custody of their two children.
On Monday, the Seremban High Court granted S. Deepa full custody of her two children ― a nine-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son ― as her marriage to N. Viran in 2004 was a civil union and did not come under Shariah law.
Justice Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof also permitted her to divorce Viran who converted to Islam in 2012, and had taken the Muslim name of Izwan Abdullah.
The IGP should remember his sworn oath to uphold the law and the Constitution and should take immediate action to ensure that the “abducted” son is immediately returned to her mother who has lawful custody under following their civil union.
(Media Conference Statement2 in Batu Pahat on Saturday, April 12, 2014 at 11.30 am)