Nirmal Krishna Saha, grandfather of one-year-old Indrashish Saha — who has been taken into custody by the child protective services in New Jersey — on Tuesday expressed his willingness to go to the U.S. to take charge of the child, if required.
Mr. Saha made the offer in a letter sent to the President, the Prime Minister, the Ministry of External Affairs and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
He later told The Hindu over telephone from Balurghat in Dakshin Dinajpur district: “I would urge the government to make the necessary arrangements relating to documents like passport and visa so that we can go to the U.S. and take custody of our grandson.”
In the letter, Mr. Saha expressed fears that in a few days Indrashish “would be sent to an unknown person or place, the address of which will not be informed to his parents.”
“We do not like to keep our dearest grandson under the custody of an unknown person or institution for a single day. Under these circumstances, I earnestly request you take immediate necessary steps so that we may get back our dearest grandson as quickly as possible.”
Mr. Saha said his 28-year-old son, Debashish Saha, an engineer, was unable to arrange for a lawyer to appear before the local court there because of financial constraints.
The local court in New Jersey had asked Mr. Debashish Saha to appear with a lawyer on September 14, when the matter comes up for hearing.
Narrating the developments leading to the child being taken into custody, Mr. Saha said in his letter that his son, along with his daughter-in-law and Indrashish, arrived in the Parsippany township of New Jersey in July. The accident — the child falling from a three-foot-high bed — occurred on August 9.
“After treatment and brain operation, my grandson is well now,” he said in the letter, adding that the local court had passed an order that his parents would not be able to meet him for more than two hours in a week.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Saha met Durgadas Goswami, District Magistrate, Daskshin Dinajpur, and handed him the letter. “My job is to send [this letter] to the addressees at the earliest,” Mr. Goswami said.
Ms. Banerjee told journalists at the Secretariat in Kolkota on Tuesday that she had spoken to the Ministry of External Affairs on the issue and urged it to take necessary steps for the early return of the child to his parents.
