Ariha Shah was born to Bhavesh Shah, a Gujarati software engineer, and his wife Dhara in Berlin in February 2021. Within seven months of her birth, Bhavesh and Dhara’s days of parenting came to an abrupt halt as Ariha was taken by the Jugendamt, German childcare services, on September 23, 2021, based on allegations of “assault.”
The intervention came after Ariha was taken to the hospital after she sustained injuries in her “outer genital area”. This prompted the Jugendamt to take swift action, immediately taking the child away to foster care, with her parents allowed to visit once every fortnight or so. The authorities swiftly launched an investigation into the matter and registered a case of child sexual abuse against the parents.
Ariha’s mother, however, told the media that the injury was caused by an accident by the child’s grandmother.
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The assault charges were withdrawn after an inquiry, but the parents were charged with negligence instead. However, the case was closed in February 2022, with no official charges filed against them, according to NDTV.
Despite this, the baby was not returned to her parents. Instead, the Jugendamt filed a civil custody case for the termination of parental rights and permanent custody of the child. Since then, the parents have been fighting a legal battle for the custody of their child, who is now over two years old.
In a recent hearing, a court in Berlin’s Pankow denied custody of 27-month-old Ariha Shah to her parents and handed her over to Germany's Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt).
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The couple had requested to the German court that their child be given to them or at least to Indian Welfare Services.
Denying the appeal, the court granted Ariha's custody to the German state on Friday and dismissed the claim of her parents that the injury sustained by her was "accidental".
In a desperate attempt to get their child back, Bhavesh and Dhara urged the Indian government to step in.
On June 3, Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi urged the German authorities “to do all that is necessary to send Ariha to India at the earliest, which is also her inalienable right as an Indian national”.
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Meanwhile, 59 members of the Indian parliament from 19 political parties, including the BJP, Congress, and the Trinamool Congress, had written a joint letter to German Ambassador to India Philipp Ackermann and asked him to do everything possible to ensure that Ariha was repatriated to India at the earliest, insisting that "India can well look after her own children".
This case has been noted for its similarity to that of Sagarika Chakraborty, another Indian national whose two children were taken away and placed in foster care by Norwegian authorities in 2011, accusing her of “improper parenting”. Rani Mukerji’s recent film "Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway" was based on Chakraborty’s struggle to get her children back.