New Delhi: Members of Parliament (MP) from different parties have also been active to get the custody of the baby girl of a Gujarati couple living in Germany from the German authorities. 59 MPs from 19 parties have written to the German ambassador in India seeking his intervention to ensure the return of an Indian girl child who was taken away from her parents by German authorities in September 2021.
The German child welfare agency Jugendamt took custody of Ariha Shah when she was seven months old, alleging that her parents were abusing her. “We do not blame any agency in your country and believe that whatever was done was in the best interest of the child,” the parliamentarians wrote. We respect the legal procedures in your country, but given that there is no criminal case pending against any member of the family, it is high time to repatriate the above child.”
The letter has been endorsed by MPs across party lines. They include Hema Malini (BJP), Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary (Congress), Supriya Sule (NCP), Kanimozhi Karunanidhi (DMK), Mahua Moitra (TMC), Agatha Sangma (NPP), Harsimrat Kaur Badal (SAD), Maneka Gandhi (BJP). , Praneet Kaur (Congress), Shashi Tharoor (Congress) and Farooq Abdullah (NC).
They said that Ariha’s parents Dhara and Bhavesh Shah were in Berlin. Because, the child’s father was working in a company there. In a tragic incident, Ariha was taken away from her parents after the girl was admitted to the hospital with an accidental groin injury. An investigation was initiated against the child’s parents for sexual abuse. The police case was closed in February 2022 without any charges against the parents. Even though the hospital issued a report denying sexual abuse, the girl is yet to be handed over to her parents.