Indian parents accused of beating their child; Norway authorities take custody of 5-year-old from NRI couple

Authorities in Norway accused an NRI couple of beating their child and have taken custody of the 5-year-old from his parents.

The boy's father, Anil Kumar, said that the authorities did not give them prior intimation and directly picked up their son from his kindergarten school and took his wife into custody.

"The Child Welfare Department of Norway took custody of my five-and-a-half-year-old son on December 13, at 9:30 am, from his kindergarten school. They did not give us prior information. At 10 am, the same day, four policemen came to my house, took my wife into custody, and interrogated her from 11.15 am to 2.45 pm," Kumar from Oslo told The Indian Express.

The father said that the child was also interrogated by the officials for around one and a half hours and was also shown a video. Kumar also claimed that the child denied of being beaten up initially, but the police then took him to another room after which the child agreed of having been beaten up by the parents.

Taking the parents' plea, the vice president of the Overseas Friends of the BJP in Oslo and his wife have approached the BJP leaders in India to seek assistance. Reports state that the child taken into custody by the authorities has been put in a home in Hamar, some 150 kms away from Oslo.

The instance marks the third such incidence when the authorities in Norway have taken a child from NRI parents into custody citing abuse at home. In December 2012, an NRI couple in Norway, Chandrashekhar and Anupama Vallabhaneni, were convicted by a Norway court for abusing their son Sai Sriram. Reports state that the couple used to beat their seven-year-old son with a belt and also inflicted burn injuries on him.

Two other NRI children, one-year-old girl and three-year-old boy, were also taken by authorities from their parents in 2011 and were kept in a foster home for almost a year.