KOLKATA: Indrashis Saha, the 18-month old baby who spent seven months in custody of the US child protection agency in New Jersey returned to Kolkata on Wednesday.
Initially zapped by the reception after a 10-hour flight, he clung onto his grandmother's arms as if he had missed all that attention for months.
Indrashis' software engineer father Debasish Saha had gone there to work on a project in July last. The baby injured his head after falling from his bed on August 9 2012. The hospital authorities where he was treated refused to hand over the child suspecting that the injury was due to negligence and Indrashis was taken away by the child protection agency.
"It has been a long and anxious wait. My grandson must have gone through lots in the past seven months. We will make up whatever he has lost all these months," said maternal grandmother Pragati Basak who has been granted custody.
Indrashis boarded the Emirates flight from Newark with his uncle Bhaskar Kundu at 11 pm (IST) on Tuesday. The flight halted in Dubai two hours behind schedule due to technical reasons.
Kundu was suggested along with the paternal grandparents and maternal grandmother for custody. Representatives of US child protection agency visited the houses of each before granting custody to Basak.
"The battle was long but we finally won. Due to differences in cultural, social and family values, the West probably takes it as negligence whenever a problem arises with our children in their country. I am thankful to everyone who stood us by, specially the President of India and Congress leader Om Prakash Mishra," said grandfather Nirmal Chandra Saha.
Mishra too was at the airport on Wednesday to receive the baby. The retired school head master from Balurghat had approached Pranab Mukherjee in October.
Indrashis' mother Pamela is expected to return India soon though Debasish will come back after the completion of the project.
18-month-old stuck in US for 7 months finally returns home
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18-month-old stuck in US for 7 months finally returns home
