Norway custody row children caught in family feud

The two infants, Abhigyan and Aishwaya, brought to Burdwan, West Bengal from Norway after a prolonged custody battle, are again in the midst of a row with their mother and paternal grandfather lodging complaints against each other with the police.

Demanding security, Ajay Bhattacharya, the paternal grandfather of the children, lodged a FIR with the Kulti police station in Burdwan district on Friday, alleging that the mother Sagarika Bhattacharya barged into their house with outsiders and threatened them.

Sagarika had earlier lodged a FIR against Ajay Bhattacharya, her father-in-law, on Thursday at the same police station alleging that she was prevented from meeting her children.

Sagarika said that she last met her children on April 25 at a relative's house at Sinthe in the suburbs of Kolkata.

Assistant Commissioner of Durgapur-Asansol Police Commissionerate Anjali Ahuja said, "We have received complaints from both sides. As it is a family matter, we are trying to talk to both of them and asking them to solve the matter amicably."

The children were taken away from their parents, Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya, by Norway's Child Welfare Service in May last year on grounds of 'emotional disconnect'.

After being kept in foster care for almost a year by the authorities in Norway, the two children arrived in Delhi on April 24, after a Norwegian court a day earlier gave their custody to their uncle Arunabhas Bhattacharya.