Custody battle: Huge setback for Indian couple; Norway says can't let children go back to family

Stavanger:  In a huge setback to the Indian couple fighting for the custody of their children in Norway, the Child Welfare Services (CWS) has categorically said the children cannot go back to family now and the case will be dropped.

In a statement, the CWS said, "New developments involving two Indian children make it impossible to carry out the hearing in Stavanger District Court that was scheduled for Friday, March 23. The conflicts over the last few days between the parents and their respective families mean that the conditions for entering into an agreement of this kind are no longer present."

In that hearing, the Indian authorities were supposed to recommend to a court in Norway that the children - three-year-old Abhigyan and one-year-old Aishwarya - be placed in the custody of their uncle. What's worse is that there is no indication that there will be a new hearing.

The CWS "is no longer confident that the parties wish to enter into a genuine agreement. Over the last few days, the parties to the agreement have provided conflicting and different information, both to the Child Welfare Service and to the media, on their positions in the case," CWS chief Gunnar Toreseen said.

He emphasised that the CWS was well aware that there was a great deal of external pressure on the family, and that this made it difficult for them to agree on a clear position. "But in the light of the great uncertainty that now prevails, the Child Welfare Service cannot maintain that a move to India would be in the best interests of the children."

"Even if the parents and the children's uncle should nevertheless now want to sign an agreement, the Child Welfare Service does not have sufficient confidence that an agreement would be fulfilled as intended, because the necessary consensus and understanding between the parties and their families does not exist," he said.

The children were placed in foster care against in Norway last May against the wishes of their parents, Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya. However, reports emerged that after a fight with his wife, Anurup had told Norwegian officials that he would prefer for Abhigyan and Aishwarya to stay in Norway. Different newspapers quoted him as saying that he wanted to separate from his wife who allegedly attacked him over the weekend and has a record of being violent towards him. But yesterday, Anurup said that his goal remains to bring back his children to their country. "I, Anurup Bhattacharya have not filed for separation or divorce... Whatever our personal differences, we are united in our sole principal aim, which is to get the children back to India," he clarified in a press release. That plan includes placing the children in the formal care of his brother.

During the custody battle, the CWS had agreed to give children to their uncle, a dentist named Arunabhas. But over the last few days, according to CWS, the parents and the uncle of the children have changed their position several times on the agreement that had originally been reached.

"This has caused the Child Welfare Service to doubt their motives as far as the agreement is concerned. The Child Welfare Service does not have sufficient confidence that an agreement would be fulfilled as intended because the necessary consensus and understanding between the parties and their families does not exist," the CWS statement said.

For months, the Indian government has thrown its weight behind the Bhattacharyas. But these new developments have embarrassed the Indian government which had been pressuring Norway to send the children back with their parents. A series of Indian diplomats were sent to Oslo to talk to authorities there to plead the Bhattacharyas' case. "The government has tried its best to bring the children home so that they have a future in the country. But a new situation has developed.... we cannot interfere. The visit of a Joint Secretary (to Norway) has been postponed," Minister of State for External Affairs, Preneet Kaur, told reporters yesterday.

Sources have told NDTV that with the family dispute out in the open, the government is in a difficult position and is unable to have a diplomatic edge to take a strong stand. The government rushed its First Secretary in the Indian Embassy in Norway to Stavanger to sort out the mess but at this stage future intervention from the Indian government is uncertain.
Anurup's visa expires this month. He was posted to Norway on an official assignment. The family insisted that Child Welfare Service officials who had placed the children in foster care had mistaken cultural differences for poor parenting. So Sagarika argued that she was being penalised for feeding her young daughter by hand, or for letting her son sleep in his parents' bed

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14 children feared dead as Andhra school bus falls into canal

Khammam, Andhra Pradesh:  At least 14 children are feared dead after a school bus carrying them fell into a canal in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh this afternoon.

Early reports suggest that the cleaner rather than driver was driving the vehicle when the accident happened.

The bus belonged to LV Reddy School and reportedly had a total of 40 children on board.

It plunged into Tungaram canal in Kothagudem Mandal while trying to avoid a collision with a bike, said an eyewitness.

The accident also left 18 children injured. They were rushed to a nearby hospital.

In a similar mishap in the state last month, four students died after their school bus fell into a river in East Godavari district.

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Three children killed in French school shooting

Toulouse, France:  A motorcycle gunman opened fire on Monday in front of a Jewish school in the southwest French city of Toulouse, killing a father, his two sons and one other child, the prosecutor's office said.

It was the latest in a week of motorcycle shooting attacks in France. Two separate motorcycle gunman attacks have killed three paratroopers and left one other in critical condition in the same area.

Prosecutor Michel Valet said a 30-year-old man and his 3-year-old and 6-year-old sons were killed in the attack just before classes started at the Ozar Hatorah school. He said another child, between 8 and 10 years old, was also killed, and a 17-year-old seriously injured.

French authorities were stepping up security at all Jewish schools in France, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said, adding the suspect made his getaway on a dark-colored scooter.

The school behind a high white wall with few external markings was cordoned off on Monday by police, who then escorted other children out. One officer held a distraught girl, her face in her hands. A mother and son wearing a yarmulke walked away from the site, their faces visibly pained. A video camera was visible at the school's entrance.

"The drama occurred a bit before 8 a.m. A man arrived in front of the school on a motorcycle or scooter," Valet said, adding that the man got off his scooter outside the school and opened fire.

"He shot at everything he had in front of him, children and adults," he said. "The children were chased inside the school"

The prosecutor said the suspect probably used two weapons, including one of a large caliber.

A gunman on a motorbike opened fire on three uniformed paratroopers at a bank machine on Thursday in Montauban in southern France, killing two and critically wounding the other. Four days earlier, a gunman on a motorbike shot and killed another paratrooper in Toulouse, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) away.

The Paris prosecutor's office said on Monday it will investigate eventual terrorist links to Monday's killing and the two killings of paratroopers last week. The prosecutor's office, in a statement, did not indicate any evidence so far of any form of terrorism.

Both the prosecutor and Brandet said there were similarities with the attack four days ago in Montauban. Brandet noted that in both cases scooters were used and both suspects were apparently very determined.

A week ago in Toulouse, there was a deadly attack on another paratrooper.

In each case the assailant was on a scooter. Authorities said at the time that forensic analysis showed the same weapon was used in the shootings in Montauban and Toulouse.

President Nicolas Sarkozy accompanied by Richard Prasquier, the president of CRIF, the umbrella group representing Jewish organizations, were heading to the school.

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