Couple ask for MEA help to get baby back from US foster care

His wife, Vidisha had delivered a boy, whom they named Ashvid, on October 21. However, on December 23, while they were getting ready to take the child to a paediatrician, he slipped from Vidisha’s hands, sustaining injuries on his head.

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According to Ashish, the baby was rushed to a hospital. He was first taken to the emergency unit of Christ Hospital and subsequently transferred to St. Peter’s Hospital, which involved the Department of Child Protection and Permanency (DACPP).

The DACPP suspected Ashvid to be suffering from Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) — a set of injuries in the head through which doctors may infer child abuse — and handed him to foster parents.

“He was in the ICU for a week but on the eighth day, when he was discharged, the authorities took him away,” Ashish’s brother Abhishek Pareekh, who is in Jaipur, told The Indian Express. The family insists the fall was accidental. “Since being taken into custody, Ashvid is deprived of mother’s milk and the parents are allowed to meet him for only a few hours a day,” Abhishek said.

On Thursday, the couple’s relatives also met Rajasthan Home Secretary Sandeep Verma, who assured them of taking the matter up with the Union Home Ministry. The couple has moved court in the US.