Parents traumatised after US authorities take away 1-yr-old

Balurghat (WB), Sept 9: A

-based Indian couple, hailing from Balurghat in West Bengal, has been given limited access by American authorities to their one-year-old son after he underwent surgery for an injury.

Nirmal and Sonarani Saha, the grandparents of Indrasish, said he fell from the bed on Aug 9 at the couple's New Jersey home when his mother Pamela was cooking and his father Debashis was in office. Indrashish was immediately rushed to a state-owned hospital where he was admitted by doctors and underwent a surgery, Nirmal Saha told reporters here.

After Indrasish got well his parents wanted to take him home but the hospital authorities refused to hand him over to them as the Child Protection Organisation alleged that the parents had failed to take proper care of him, the grandfather said. He said he has appealed to the President, the Prime Minister and the West Bengal Chief Minister for help and added that his son Debashis rang up Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee and appealed for help.

Subrata Mukherjee told Debashis that he would take up the matter with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday.

Earlier in May, two Indian infants in Norway were taken into foster care by Child Protection Service there alleging that their mother Sagarika was unfit to take care of two-and-half-year-old Abhigyan and five-month-old Aishwarya. The two infants were subsequently sent to India in the custody of their uncle Arunabhas Bhattacharya.

PTI