NRI kids row: Norway envoy summoned

India on Wednesday summoned Norwegian ambassador Ann Ollestad and sought an expeditious solution to the custody row involving two NRI children who are in foster care in that country.

India on Wednesday summoned Norwegian ambassador Ann Ollestad and sought an expeditious solution to the custody row involving two NRI children who are in foster care in that country.

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She was summoned to the ministry of external affairs and met secretary (West) Madhusudan Ganapathi.

The envoy was summoned a day after CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat met external affairs minister SM Krishna and sought the government’s immediate intervention in ensuring early return of two Indian children separated from their parents last year on the grounds of “emotional disconnect”.

She had conveyed her concern over the statement made by a top Norwegian official that the children will not be sent to India before April.

Official sources said the ministry asked the envoy why the process of bring the children back was taking time.

NRI couple Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya’s children Abhigyan, 3, and Aishwarya, 1, were taken away last year by Barnevarne (Norwegian Child Welfare Services), which claimed emotional disconnect with the parents, and placed them in foster parental care.