HC order on Norway children's case tomorrow

The Calcutta high court on Wednesday concluded hearing of the case for custody of the two children, Abhigyan and Aishwarya sent back to India from Norway in the foster care of their uncle, with the order to be delivered on Thursday.

Justice Dipankar Dutta heard the case in-camera filed by mother Sagarika Bhattacharya and also spoke to the children for quite some time.

Justice Dutta said the order would be delivered on Thursday, but allowed the mother to take away the children after the hearing. Earlier, the police had informed the court that they could not trace the children who were handed over to the mother by the Burdwan district administration on Tuesday.

The court had on Tuesday directed that the children be handed back to their uncle Arunabhash Bhattacharya from whom they were taken. The police said that they were unable to find the children as the mother's house was locked.

After a direction to the mother's counsel, the mother and her two children appeared in court. The case was heard in the presence of family members and their lawyers, while the rest were asked to leave the courtroom.

The children, who cried at times, began calling out to their uncle as soon as they spotted him in court. The children had been sent back to India on April 24 last year and have been in the foster care of their uncle as ordered by the Norway court.

The mother has been living at her father's residence in Birati in North 24 Parganas after leaving Norway on March 20 last year. Sagarika's husband Anurup is still in Norway. They had married in 2007.

The children had returned to India following diplomatic pressure. The children were earlier placed in foster care by Norway's Child Protection Agency in Stavanger city till they attained majority after their mother's alleged inability to respond to their needs.