Norway row: Court to pass verdict on Indian parents today

A Norway court will pronounce its verdict today on the case of an Indian couple arrested for alleged abuse of their seven-year-old son. The prosecution had charged the couple with “gross repeated maltreatment” of their child by “threats, violence or other wrong”, and proposed a jail term of 15 and 18 months for the mother and father respectively. They were charged under Section 219 of Norwegian law. [caption id=“attachment_542772” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Firstpost[/caption] Chandrashekar Vallabhaneni, a software professional from Andhra Pradesh, and his wife Anupama were taken into custody by the police in Oslo on Monday. The police arrested Chandrasekhar, a TCS employee, nine months after the child complained to his school teachers that his parents were threatening to send him back to India for his behaviour, Chandrasekhar’s nephew V Sailender, who is in Hyderabad, claimed. The boy was found wetting his pants in the school bus which was reported to his father, who in turn “threatened” the child that he would be sent back to India if he repeated that again, Sailender said, adding the boy was also found bringing toys hine from school. The couple has refuted the allegations. Their families in Andhra Pradesh too have termed the charges are as “false”. The family have even appealed to the government to intervene in the matter. However, the Centre seems reluctant to intervene in what it sees essentially as a legal case. “My uncle had no idea about the case registered against him initially. He came to Hyderabad along with his wife and children in July and went back to Oslo in the last week of October. Then he was served a notice to appear before the authorities along with his wife,” he said. “My aunt also went to Oslo on 23 November and the couple appeared before the authorities concerned. On November 28, we were informed by my uncle’s neighbours in Oslo that they were arrested and remanded,” Sailender said.