NRI couple patch up, decide kids should go to uncle

Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya, the NRI couple fighting to get custody of their children from the Norwegian child welfare services, today agreed to allow the authorities to hand them over to an uncle.

“The parents and uncle have agreed to give custody of the children to the uncle (Anurup’s brother Arunabas). This agreement has been signed in the Indian embassy today,” Svein Kjetil Lode Svendsen, legal counsel for the Bhattacharyas told Times Now.

“We will present this agreement to the child welfare services and hope that they have faith that this is the parent’s wish and that they are together,” he said.

The Bhattacharyas’ custody battle for their children, three-year-old Abhigyan and one-year-old Aishwarya, was severely affected after a quarrel between the parents over the last weekend.

The father of the children, Anurup, had accused the mother of having psychological problems and had alleged he concealed it in order to get the children’s custody. He subsequently retracted his statements.

The lawyer for the parents said that the child welfare services could take time to agree to the newly signed agreement.

“It will be presented to the child welfare services today. I believe the child welfare services want to take time and will not give us a response today,” Svein Svendsen said.

The children have been in the custody of child welfare services since May 2011.

The couple were initially inclined to get the authorities to transfer the custody of the children to Anurup’s brother until the quarrel between them. The court hearing on the custody of the children was scheduled for today but is presently indefinitely postponed.