India can diplomatically “do something” in the alleged child abuse case involving an Indian couple in Norway, overseas Indian affairs minister Vayalar Ravi said on Monday ahead of the judgment by Oslo district court expected today. The couple — Chandrasekhar Vallabhaneni, a software professional from Andhra Pradesh, and his wife Anupama — have been charged with “gross or repeated maltreatment” of their child and remanded in custody.

Asked to comment on external affairs minister Salman Khurshid’s statement that the issue did not relate to the government but to a private citizen and local law, Ravi said, “That is a legal position but diplomatically we can try to influence the government… We can tell him (the ambassador) to try to help the family.”

He added that he had tried but could not get in touch with India’s ambassador to Norway.  Ravi said he could only tell the ambassador that if he needed any funds from his ministry for the case, he could sanction it, but the consular assistance to the couple would fall under Khurshid.

When the couple’s seven-year-old son wet his pants in the school bus and the matter was reported to his father, he rebuked and “threatened” the child. He told the boy that he would be sent back to India if he wet his pants again.