Oslo/Ahmedabad, Dec 4 : A Norway court on Tuesday convicted the Indian couple in the alleged case of child abuse. The court sentenced the father Chandrasekhar Vallabhaneni to 18 months and the mother Anupama to 15 months of imprisonment.

The Norway police have accused the couple belonging from Andhra Pradesh, of gross and repeated maltreatment of their children by threats and violence. Reacting to the issue the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said that she and her party were astonished by this verdict. "We are astonished, the BJP would demand that the MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) should talk to the Norway authorities regarding the extreme sentences," said Sitharaman. "The Ministry should look after the welfare of the children abroad and make sure that every help is extended to the parents," she added.

The charged family had denied the prosecutors' allegation that one of the two children had burn marks and scars and was beaten with a belt. Vallabhaneni, a software engineer in software giant TCS, was deputed to Oslo 18 months ago to handle a project and he took his wife and two sons with him. Two schoolteachers of the seven-year-old son had complained to the authorities against the parents of manhandling the child. (ANI)