The case of Baby Ariha is back in the news, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday raising the issue during his bilateral talks with visiting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
This has revived the hope of parents Dhara and Bhavesh Shah that they may get back the custody of Ariha, who was seven-months-old when a family court in Germany handed her over to the German Youth Services in September 2021.
In the more than four years since, the Gujarat-origin parents have been allowed only brief visits with Ariha every fortnight, while Ariha’s foster care arrangements have changed five times.
Expressing their fear that Ariha will lose all touch with her roots, especially her Jain roots, the family says that while they were told a year ago by the German Youth Services that she would be sent for English classes, she is not able to even respond to simple English greetings.
With Ariha fluent in only German, Dhara has learnt the language to communicate with her. So when they now meet, she acts as a translator between her and Bhavesh, whose German is limited to a few words such as einhorn (unicorn), geschenk (gift), spielzug (toy) and wunsch (wish).
Sources close to the family speak about the Jain festival of Paryushan last year when, according to them, Ariha was not allowed to meet others from the Gujarati Jain community. A community member says Dhara and Bhavesh’s requests for the same were denied.
Apart from Ariha’s parents, members of the Jain community too have been making representations to various political representatives in India, as well as to the Indian Embassy in Germany, seeking that Ariha be returned to her parents.
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Replying to questions related to Ariha, during a media briefing related to the meeting between PM Modi and Chancellor Merz in Gujarat Monday, Misri said: “We believe it should be approached like a humanitarian issue. I cannot say that we understand the agony and difficulties of the family, because only they can understand it… And we are doing everything that we can to help them.”
Misri said they are also trying to ensure that the baby grows up in as Indian an atmosphere as possible, including participation in Indian festivals, and learning Hindi.
The case of Ariha, born in February 2021, was brought to the notice of the German authorities after she was brought to hospital by her parents in September 2021. The attendants noticed injuries in her private parts and, after treating her, notified the Youth Services, suspecting “sexual abuse”. A previous injury, from April 2021, which the parents said had happened when they were giving Ariha a bath, also came up during the official inquiries.
In September 2021, a district court, taking away the custody of Ariha from Dhara and Bhavesh, ruled that “that the mother and/or father (had) intentionally caused the serious genital injuries of the child” and that the parents were unable to “explain the events in question in a sufficiently consistent manner”.
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In December 2021, medical experts ruled out sexual assault and the prosecutor dropped criminal charges in connection with the same in February 2022. However, Ariha’s custody was not returned to her parents.
Since October 2021, Ariha’s parents’ visits to her have been supervised by a social worker, who submits a report once in three months on the same. Until January 2022, Ariha’s parents were allowed once-a-week visits for half-an-hour. Then, in January 2022, the court ordered a psychological evaluation of the parents to gauge their parenting fitness, and the visits were cut to hour-long once-a-month meetings, on the ground that Ariha should have a bond with her foster carer rather than only her parents as she was going to live with the former.
Subsequently, following a court order and communication between the Indian and German governments, Ariha’s parents were able to increase their visitation to twice a month, starting December 2022, and this arrangement continues till date.
In June 2023, the court, while refusing her parents’ request that Ariha at least be placed in Indian child services’ custody, said that her biological “parents are no longer authorised to decide on the whereabouts of their child”.
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The same month, the Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement urging 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”. Nearly 60 MPs from across parties, including the BJP, Congress, Left and Trinamool Congress, wrote a joint letter to the German Ambassador urging the same.
In March 2024, an appellate court noted that “the more or more intensively the parties involved — parents and youth welfare authorities — talk to each other, the more likely it is that the process will be in the best interests of the child. Ideally, the steps taken should be reached by consensus and a standstill in the process should be avoided.”
On July 18 that year, the appellate court, however, upheld the district family court’s decision.
Ariha’s parents continue to live in Berlin. The couple drive two hours to a facility every two weeks to meet their daughter, who will be 5 years of age in a month’s time.
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Meanwhile, as per their lawyer, they owe Rs 22 lakh to the German child services for Ariha’s fostering between September 2021 and June 2024, with the amount growing each day. The family has also run up Rs 16 lakh in litigation costs, as per sources close to the family. Bhavesh, who briefly held a job, is now unemployed.
