Mamata takes up US child custody case with MEA

"I took up the matter with the External Affairs Ministry which assured to provide all assistance," Banerjee said referring to the the case of one-year-old Indrashish who is in the custody of the US Child Service on the allegation that his New Jersey-based parents failed to take proper care of him.

The chief minister took up the issue with the ministry after the boy's maternal uncle wrote to her, CMO sources told PTI here.

The uncle, Pradip Pramanik, met Housing minister Aroop Biswas yesterday and sought the intervention of the chief minister.

The MEA informed the chief minister that External Affairs minister S M Krishna has sought a report from the Indian High Commission in the US, the sources said.

With the case for custody of Indrashish, whose parents have been given limited access, coming up for hearing on September 14, his grandparents have sought help to engage a competent advocate.

Earlier the grandparents in Balurghat had said the boy fell from his bed on August 9 at his New Jersey home when his mother Pamela was cooking and his father Debashis was away in office.

Indrashish was rushed to a state-owned hospital where he was admitted by doctors and underwent a surgery.

After he recovered, 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.