Norway custody row: NGO seeks permission to bring back kids

Kolkata, Mar 25: A Kolkata-based NGO has appealed to external affairs minister SM Krishna to assist it in bringing back to India the two children who are in the midst of a custody row in Norway.

The NGO, India's Smile, which had earlier urged the government to bring back Abhigyan (3) and Aishwaraya (1), children of Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya, residing in Oslo, said it was willing to bear all expenses in bringing them up till they attained the age of 18.

Secretary trustee of the NGO, Rajeev Sarkar told PTI that it was his organisation which had first alerted the ministry of overseas Indian affairs about the plight of the two children in Oslo on December 19 last year.

He claimed that thereafter MK Pande, the ministry's under secretary, had contacted him and informed him that the government would move in the matter under the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.

The children were taken away by Norway's Stavanger Child Welfare Services last May on grounds of 'emotional disconnect' and put in foster care.

PTI