Stuck in legal tangle in US, infant set to return home

A one-and-half-year-old boy, whose US-based Indian parents were given limited access by the authorities to him for over six months, will return to India within a week.

"A New Jersey court in the USA has ruled that the boy, Indrasish Saha, will be handed over to his maternal grandmother Pragati Basak, as his parents were unable to look after the child properly," the child's grandfather Nirmal Krishna Saha said here in South Dinajpur district today.

Pragati Basak, a resident of the district's Gangarampur area, had already started for New Jersey along with another relative, Nirmal said, adding they were expected to return along with the child within a week.

Indrasish's grandparents had earlier said the child fell from the bed on August 9 at his New Jersey home when his mother Pamela was cooking and his father Debashis was in office.

Indrasish was rushed to a state-owned hospital where he underwent a surgery.
After he got well, his parents wanted to take him home but the hospital authorities refused to hand him over as the Child Protection Organisation alleged that the parents had failed to take proper care of him.

The kid has been under the care of the New Jersey Child Protection Department since last August.

While Indrasish's father moved New Jersey court to get back his son, his grandparents called on leaders including President Pranab Mukherjee seeking help in this regard.
The New Jersey court had ruled on February 14 that the child will be handed over to Pragati Basak.

In May last year, two Indian infants in Norway were taken into foster care by the Child Protection Service there on the allegation that their mother Sagarika was unfit to take care of them.

Two-and-half-year-old Abhigyan and five-month-old Aishwarya were subsequently sent to India in the custody of their uncle.