New Delhi, March 26,2012: Sagarika Chakraborty, mother of the two NRI kids kept under foster care by Norway, flew for India two days ago and is expected to reach Kolkata today.
She left Norway after NRI couple Sagarika and Anurup Bhattacharya re-signed an agreement to hand over their children to their uncle Arunabhash, with India pressing the point that the best bet for children would be to bring them up in an Indian cultural milieu. “Both parents have agreed to hand over the children to the uncle. The agreement was signed today (Friday) and will be handed over to the Norwegian child care service,” the lawyer representing the NRI couple told news channel Times Now. The document was attested by the Indian embassy in Oslo, confirmed government sources. The renewed pact offers a way out of the impasse the custody case had reached after marital problems between the parents became public and the Norwegian authorities refused to hand over the two NRI children on grounds that there were no credible guardians for them. Abhigyan, 3, and Aishwarya, 1, children of the couple living in Norway’s Stavanger, were taken under protective care by Barnevarne (Norwegian Child Welfare Services) last May on the ground that they were not looked after properly by their parents Over a month ago, India and Norway had struck an agreement under which the parents named Anurup’s brother Arunabhash Bhattacharya as the primary caretaker of the two children. The re-nomination of the uncle as local guardian came after some reports that he had backed out of the agreement amid speculation that parents were planning to separate. The parents’ marital problems and the disclosure about the mother’s unstable mental condition had embarrassed the government which has invested much diplomatic capital in pressuring the Norwegian authorities to help children return to India in the care of their extended family. If the pact is accepted by the Norwegian court as sufficient guarantee for handing over the children, it will be a major boost to the government which has faced some criticism for intervening in the case without cross-checking the facts.
She left Norway after NRI couple Sagarika and Anurup Bhattacharya re-signed an agreement to hand over their children to their uncle Arunabhash, with India pressing the point that the best bet for children would be to bring them up in an Indian cultural milieu. “Both parents have agreed to hand over the children to the uncle. The agreement was signed today (Friday) and will be handed over to the Norwegian child care service,” the lawyer representing the NRI couple told news channel Times Now. The document was attested by the Indian embassy in Oslo, confirmed government sources. The renewed pact offers a way out of the impasse the custody case had reached after marital problems between the parents became public and the Norwegian authorities refused to hand over the two NRI children on grounds that there were no credible guardians for them. Abhigyan, 3, and Aishwarya, 1, children of the couple living in Norway’s Stavanger, were taken under protective care by Barnevarne (Norwegian Child Welfare Services) last May on the ground that they were not looked after properly by their parents Over a month ago, India and Norway had struck an agreement under which the parents named Anurup’s brother Arunabhash Bhattacharya as the primary caretaker of the two children. The re-nomination of the uncle as local guardian came after some reports that he had backed out of the agreement amid speculation that parents were planning to separate. The parents’ marital problems and the disclosure about the mother’s unstable mental condition had embarrassed the government which has invested much diplomatic capital in pressuring the Norwegian authorities to help children return to India in the care of their extended family. If the pact is accepted by the Norwegian court as sufficient guarantee for handing over the children, it will be a major boost to the government which has faced some criticism for intervening in the case without cross-checking the facts.