Norway child custody row: Centre to represent mother, says EAM Sushma Swaraj

New Delhi: The Indian government will represent the mother of a five-year-old child in Norway who has been separated from his parents who have been accused of beating him up, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Friday.
“Father and son are Norwegian nationals. We will represent on request of the mother, who is an Indian national,” Sushma Swaraj tweeted.
She said that she has received a report she had sought from the Indian Ambassador in Norway regarding the case.
According to reports, the child was taken from his kindergarten school on December 13 without the parents being informed and is being kept at a children’s welfare home some 150 km away from Norwegian capital Oslo.
His mother, Gurvinderjit Kaur, was also taken into custody and was subjected to interrogation.
The child’s father, Anil Kumar, who runs an Indian restaurant, has denied all the allegations and said that his son was asthmatic.
This is the third such case in Norway involving Indian children.
In 2011, a three-year-old and and a one-year-old were separated from their parents but were later reunited when the UPA government took up the issue with Norwegian authorities.
In another case of alleged child abuse in December 2012, a seven-year-old and a two-year-old were separated from their parents. The mother got a 15-month prison term and the father was jailed for 18 months.
The two children were sent to the custody of their grandparents in Hyderabad.