By IANS,
New Delhi : The proposed visit by two senior Indian officials to attend a hearing on the custody row involving two children in Norway appears to be off as new revelations have emerged about their father seeking legal separation from his wife.
There was a plan for a legal expert and a senior official of the external affairs ministry to go to Norway to attend the March 23 custody hearing of the children, who were taken away from their NRI parents by a Norwegian child care service on grounds of alleged negligence and emotional disconnect.
However, the visit looks very unlikely now in view of some procedural complications, highly-placed sources told IANS.
The sources, however, ruled out any connection with the latest developments that have provided a new twist to the much-publicised case that triggered public outrage in India.
Anurup Bhattacharya, the father of three year-old Abhigyan and one-year-old Aishwarya, has alleged that his wife had a serious psychological problem which he had hidden to get custody of the children.
Speaking to The Hindu, Bhattacharya said his wife Sagarika assaulted him over the weekend many times and he planned to seek legal separation from her.
“I concealed the seriousness of Abhigyan’s and our family’s problems it was because I thought that was the only way we could get our children back. But I now realise that was a mistake and I should have spoken the truth right from the start,” The Hindu quoted him as saying.
The new developments have complicated the efforts by the external affairs ministry, which has been mounting pressure on the Norwegian authorities to enable speedy reunion of the children with their parents and family.
The two children 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.
Amid public outrage and protests by the opposition, India last month had sent special envoy Madhusudhan Ganapathi, secretary (West) in the external affairs ministry, to Norway to urge the authorities to help facilitate an early return of the children to India.
Over a month ago, India and Norway struck an agreement under which the parents named Anurup’s brother Arunabhash Bhattacharya as the primary caretaker of the two children. Arunabhash Bhattacharya is currently in Norway.