Norway kids row: Court orders children to be sent back to India

New Delhi, Apr 23 (ANI): A Norway court on Monday ordered the children of Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya to be sent back to India.

The children are expected to arrive in New Delhi tomorrow morning along with their foster parents.

A senior Indian diplomat will also be escorting the children to India.

During the hearing in the case involving two Indian children, which was held in the Stavanger District Court on April 17, the Child Welfare Services (CWS) and the children's parents and the uncle submitted a joint statement to the court stating that they agreed to the solution that the children's uncle would be their guardian.

The CWS, which has kept the children in foster care since May last year, made a recommendation to the Stavanger district court that the children's custody should be given to the uncle and that they should be allowed to return to India.

Three-year-old Abhigyan and one-year-old Aishwarya have been placed in the care of two different foster families in Norway. The authorities in Norway have said that the children were taken away, as their parents, Sagarika and Anurup, were not taking proper care of them.

The parents, however, said the authorities took exception to cultural differences such as sleeping with the children and breastfeeding the daughter at scheduled times, as opposed to when she cried. (ANI)