Norway case: TCS staffer gets 18 months jail, wife 15

BANGALORE, INDIA: A day after postponing the verdict on the child abuse case, involving a Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) employee and his wife, a Norway court convicted them on Tuesday for "gross or repeated maltreatment of their children by threats, violence".

While V. Chandrasekhar, the techie, was awarded an 18-month prison term, his wife Anupama Vallabhaneni faces a 15-month sentence.

The prosecution had pushed for more a year in jail for the parents for allegedly abusing their child. Prosecutors said the child had burn marks and scars and was beaten with a belt, a charge the family has denied, stated an NDTV report.

"We will appeal in a higher court," Chandrasekhar's nephew V. Sailendra was reported saying at their residence in Miyapur in Hyderabad.

Apparently, Sailendra said the couple was depressed over the court sentencing them without taking into consideration the concerns raised by them. Also, the family members are said to be dejected that the Indian government didn't intervene in the case.

The couple's children - seven-year-old Sai Sriram and his younger brother - are living with their grandparents at Miyapur.

The arrests of the couple were effected after Sriram, who was then studying in Norway, complained to his school teachers that his parents were threatening to send him back to India for wetting his pants.

Basically from Krishna district in coastal Andhra, Chandrasekhar returned home with his family in July and left for Norway on November 23 only with his wife to face trial in the case.

Our repeated attempts to get an official response from TCS on what the management has decided on its employee Chandrasekhar, now that he is convicted, were rendered futile.

Keep watching this space for further updates.