India: Two Babies Sold to US and Kenyan Nationals UPDATED
“District police, which is probing a child trafficking racket in the city, has stumbled across an international connection. They found that two babies have been sold to US and Kenyan nationals by the crime syndicate.SP Ravi D Channannanavar said the accused in custody have revealed that two babies have been sold outside India. “However, we have to verify whether the information is true.
If we get enough proof to back this, we will try our best to bring the children back to India.
“Meanwhile, police have identified a few children sold by the accused to couples in Kerala , Shivamogga, Dakshina Kannada and Mysuru, and efforts are in place to take their custody. Even though they are being taken care of well by the childless couples, the children can’t be left with them as the adoption was done illegally, police said.They are also mulling whether a case should be taken against the buyers.
A man from Rajasthan, who has been living in Mysuru for many years, has been booked for illegal adoption, under the charges of child trafficking and kidnap.A team, under Nanjangud subdivision assistant superintendent of polices Divya Sara Thomas, an IPS officer, has left to Kerala to bring the children back.Till now, police have rescued nearly eight kids from different places, who are housed at Bapuji Children’s Home, a government-run institute.
The kidnap of a three-month-old baby from the streets of Nanjangud had led police to uncover the child trafficking and kidnapping racket.Usha CJ, the mastermind, had teamed up with nurses and drivers to operate this illegal business. The gang was initially only dealing with babies abandoned and unclaimed in nursing homes but the demand for baby boy forced them to kidnap a boy from a shelterless woman in Nanjangud.Action again nursing homesSrimathi and Rekha, both nurses at private nursing homes, helped Usha in the child trafficking business.”
Trafficking racket sold two babies outside India[Nyooz 11/13/16]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update: “Police in eastern India have rescued 13 babies and discovered the skeletons of two infants 
in raids on homes for the elderly and mentally disabled, as a probe into a suspected international human trafficking ring widened on Monday.
Ten infants, all under one year old, were found on Friday in a home for the mentally disabled run by a charity in the impoverished district of South 24 Parganas in West Bengal.
While in another raid in the neighboring district of North 24 Parganas, the remains of two infants were found in office premises of a charity which ran an adoption center.
The raids come after the discovery of three newborn babies on Nov. 21 hidden inside cardboard biscuit boxes in a locked storeroom in a nursing home, where women would come to deliver or have an abortion.
Rajesh Kumar of West Bengal’s Crime Investigation Department (CID), said 18 people had been arrested for taking the newborn babies and trafficking them for adoption in India and overseas.
“It is a huge network of NGOs, nursing homes, doctors and middlemen dealing in illegal adoption and baby trafficking that the police have busted. Our men are now building on the huge leads they have already got in this case,” Kumar, CID’s Additional Director General said on Monday.
Initial investigations revealed that unmarried girls and women who visited the clinics for an abortion were persuaded by staff to give birth and sell their babies.
The police did not give a price, but local news reports said the mothers were given 300,000 rupees ($4,380) for a boy and 100,000 rupees ($1,460) for a girl.
Babies were also stolen from women who delivered at the clinics, but who were told by staff their children were stillborn. Some were even given the bodies of stillborn babies preserved by the clinics to dupe parents, police said.
The babies were then smuggled in biscuit containers to adoption centers, homes for the mentally disabled and elderly people, where they were kept until their adoption was organized.
Those arrested included the owners of the clinics, midwives, doctors, owners of the charities, as well as court clerks who are accused of forging documentation for the babies.
BABIES, SKELETONS, FOREX FOUND
South Asia, with India at its center, is one of the fastest-growing regions for human trafficking in the world.
Gangs sell thousands of victims into bonded labor every year or hire them out to exploitative bosses as domestic servants, or sectors such as farming and manufacturing. Many women and girls are sold into brothels.
Following last Monday’s raid on the nursing home in Baduria, 80 km (50 miles) from Kolkata, interrogation of clinic staff led police to conduct over 20 raids in what police say appears to be a highly organized human trafficking racket.
They included a swoop on the offices of an adoption center run by a charity in Machlandapur, 25 km (15 miles) away, where police on Friday found the skeletal remains of two infants, who are suspected to have died there while awaiting sale.
The same day police also found ten babies lying on a sheet on the ground on the second floor of a charitable home for mentally disabled people in Behala. The infants showed signs of malnourishment and some had chest and skin infections.
Kumar said one of the doctors arrested on suspicion of involvement in the baby smuggling racket had over $3,200 in U.S. dollars, euros and Hong Kong dollars in his possession, suggesting the infants were being sold overseas.
“The seizure of this foreign currency is a definite indication that the racket may have its tentacles spread into foreign countries and foreign couples who were interested in baby adoption,” he said.
One of rescued infants has been reunited with its parents, who had been told by clinic staff that their baby was stillborn, he said, adding that police were trying to locate other parents as well as those who had adopted the children.
Senior government officials said the rescued babies were being treated at government hospital.
“I have asked the South 24 Parganas district child welfare officer to look into the case and arrange for proper care and upkeep of the babies,” Sashi Panja, West Bengal’s Minister for women and child welfare told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.”
Babies, skeletons and forex found as human trafficking probe widens in India [Reuters 11/28/16 by Subrata Nagchoudhury]
“Police in India have recovered the remains of five newborns and rescued ten more babies 
in the eastern region after authorities uncovered an illegal adoption racket this month, sparking a massive investigation.
Eighteen people have been arrested since last week after police rescued three stolen infants, who were being smuggled in cardboard boxes from a clinic north of Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal.
Police, who have been carrying out raids in and around the city, suspect the gang trafficked 45 newborns in two years and clinics were paid 200,000 rupees (€2,700) for a boy and half that for a girl.
State child welfare minister Sashi Panja said authorities were now investigating hundreds of private clinics.
A police spokesman told AFP that officers exhumed two newborn skeletons and three skulls from the premises of an adoption centre run by a charity on Sunday.
On the same day, ten baby girls were found at a home for senior citizens in the southern part of the capital.
The spokesman said the traffickers were unable to sell the babies – aged between one and 10 months – because of the low demand for girls in India.
The babies are now in hospital undergoing treatment for malnourishment.
Police suspect an overseas link with the racket after around $3,200 in US dollars and euros were recovered from the gang and it was suspected that a baby was sold into the US.
Parents of one of the stolen baby girls recovered last week, who were reunited with her, said the clinic told them she was stillborn.
Police rescued the girl as she was being taken from the clinic in a biscuit packaging box. The plan was to hand her over to a charity, which would have passed her to an agent working for prospective adoptive parents.
Experts say couples wanting to legally adopt in India are often frustrated by lengthy bureaucratic delays and complex rules, pushing them towards the thriving illegal adoption market.
Desperately poor parents also sometimes sell their children, while others are kidnapped by traffickers, experts say.
India has an estimated 30 million orphans. But only 4,362 children were legally adopted in 2014 and 3,677 in 2015, according to the government’s central adoption authority.”
Infant remains found as India illegal adoption inquiry widens[RTE 11/29/16 ]
“India plans to launch a public awareness drive on adoption procedures to curb the buying and selling of children after the police found stolen babies and infant skeletons during raids on charities, clinics and homes for the mentally ill and elderly.
Thirteen babies have been rescued, and the remains of two other infants uncovered, in a series of raids in the eastern state of West Bengal over the last 10 days, as police investigate a suspected international human trafficking racket.
Eighteen people, including doctors, midwives, owners of charities and clinics in North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts have been arrested, suspected of stealing babies from women who delivered at clinics, but told they were stillborn.
The babies were then smuggled by road in cardboard biscuit boxes and kept in homes for the elderly and disabled until they sold for adoption within India and overseas, say police.
India’s Women and Child Ministry said on Wednesday the discovery had prompted Women’s Minister Maneka Gandhi to take action to stem the crime of baby smuggling.
“We are convening meetings to sensitize (the) public about adoption procedure as laid down by law to avoid such heinous incidents,” said the statement posted on the ministry’s Facebook page and on its Twitter account.
The social media post also included photographs of the some of rescued babies, all under 10 months old, lying in the intensive care unit of a local hospital, where they are being treated for malnutrition, skin and respiratory infections.
Reports of human trafficking in India increased by 25 percent in 2015 compared to the previous year, with more than 40 percent of cases involving children being bought, sold and exploited as modern day slaves, government crime data showed.
There were 6,877 cases related to human trafficking last year against 5,466 in 2014, with the highest number of cases reported in the northeast state of Assam, followed by West Bengal, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
Thousands of children are lured to big cities each year by traffickers who promise good jobs but sell them into domestic or sex work or to industries such as textile workshops.
Often they are unpaid or held in debt bondage in sectors such as construction and agriculture. Children are also abducted for slavery or for sale for adoption using fake documentation.”
India to raise awareness on adoption after ‘heinous’ baby smuggling racket uncovered[Reuters 11/30/16 by Nita Bhalla]
Update 2:“The West Bengal Commission for the Protection of Child Rights has asked the CID to trace the mothers of babies rescued after the child trafficking racket was busted earlier this month to secure a more assured future for them.Speaking to TOI, WBCPCR chairperson Ananya Chatterjee said it was urgent for investigators to find the mothers so that the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in districts could complete the formalities necessary to put the babies up for adoption.
“The babies that have been rescued are all less than a year old. Since the kingpins of the racket have already been arrested, interrogation should lead to the mothers. That is crucial to first find out if the mother had abandoned the child or she was tricked into believing the child had died during delivery . If she is an unwed mother and does not wish to take the baby , she has to formally surrender the baby . On ly then can CWC go ahead with the adoption procedure,” said Chatterjee.
The CID said it had already begun work to trace the biological parents, beginning with a case that dates back to 2014 in which a woman had been handed the dead body of a child that appeared much older than a newborn. The woman has now approached the CID and expressed her suspicion that a two-year-old baby that Ujjala Byapari, an employee of the Machlandapur NGO under scanner, claims to have adopted is her son. The birth certificate produced by Byapari has already turned out to be fake. CID has also been approached by another woman who believes her baby was trafficked while she was told that it was stillborn.
With the kids having already passed through hell, Chatterjee felt it was in the child ren’s interest that cops traced the mothers at the earliest. Time is also important because the adoption procedure itself is long-drawn and could even take a couple of years.
To avoid legal complication, all the babies will undergo DNA profiling so that samples are matched with either the women who are traced by cops or those that step forward to claim a child. With the laboratories capable of DNA profi ling already burdened with work, the cross-matching may take up to a year or more. CID sources said that they have spoken to the Gujarat FSL and Hyderabad FSL to undertake the DNA profiling as soon as the babies are healthy .”
After a child is cross-matched with a mother, CWC is required to give the mother time to rethink before filing the surrender form. Only then will they be eligible for adoption.The rescued babies that are not in hospital will be handed over to CWC as they are either abandoned or stolen kids in need of care and protection.There are two other types of babies under this category: surrendered or orphaned children.
“In none of these cases have the children been formally surrendered. The adoption of all children that have been purchased through the racket are illegal. Not only will such parents face criminal charges if they are detected, the status and inheritance rights of the child can be challenged by other family members,” pointed out Bipasha Roy , consultant with WBCPCR.
At a meeting chaired by the CID special public prosecutor, it has been decided that henceforth, all adoptions have to be registered with the CID.”
CID told to find babies’ moms[Times of India 12/2/16 by Dwaipayan Ghosh]
“The CID took a step closer to building a watertight case against the 20 alleged baby traffickers arrested so far -including four doctors -by slapping murder charges (IPC 302) on the accused. The fresh section was added on Thursday after the initial postmortem report of the remains of two babies, buried on the Machhlandapur NGO grounds, reached the agency headquarters at Bhawani Bhawan.
The findings hint that the babies might have been murdered about eight to 10 months ago. The move also came hours after CID arrested two Kolkata-based doctors for being involved in the scam.
The probe agency also slapped Section 88 of the Juvenile Justice Act that deals with negligence of caregivers who were employed at the two juvenile homes in Machhlandapur and Hanspukur, located in the two Parganas, respectively . Sources in CID said the prime reason behind slapping murder charges was to ensure that none of the accused could get bail.
CID sleuths said they were tracing the activities of the gang that has recruits not only across south Bengal, but even in states like Andhra Pradesh and Delhi. The gang was working like a supply syndicate: right from having spotters, getting potential mothers admitted to nursing homes, involving NGOs and finally preparing fake papers for adoption, an officer said.
“Each area of the gang was marked out. For example, while Baduria and Habra in North 24-Parganas were covered by Sohan Nursing home and Sujit Dutta Memorial Welfare Trust, it was Dr Tapan Biswas who screened poten tial victims with spotters like Najma Bibi. Ujjala Byapari looked after the babies,” an officer said. “Similarly, for the vast stretch of Behala-Hanspukur-Rosopunja-Dostipur-Falta in South 24-Parganas, nur sing homes like South View in Behala and Purbasha Foundation and Education Society serviced it. Nityananda Biswas was the main ground agent.The adoption papers in Kolkata, though, were mostly prepared at Sree Krishna Nursing home on College Street from where medics Santosh Samanta and Dilip Ghosh were arrested,” he added.
Meanwhile, a Gaighata woman, Kalpana Sarkar, alleged that Dr Tapan Biswas had removed her kidney during an appendix surgery . Following her complaint, a CID team visited her house on Thursday night.
Sources said there are several other doctors who co-ordinated for the gang.One of them has been identified as one Dr Das, a former government hospital doctor. The CID, though, says they have found no record of any such doctor.
Civic volunteers rescue baby abandoned in bush.
Purulia: Two young civic police volunteers returning home from work rescued a day-old baby girl abandoned behind a roadside bush in Purulia. They cut the hanging umbilical cord, took her to two different health care centres on a bike before admitting her to the district’s biggest government hospital more than 80km from where she was found.
CID slaps murder charges on baby trafficking accused[Times of India 12/2/16 by Dwaipayan Ghosh]
“CID officials investigating the baby trafficking racket operating from Kolkata and the two adjoining Parganas said they have now have proof that even adoption centres were part of the trafficking racket. CID sources said that among the 50 “workable” leads received so far from various complainants ever since the baby trafficking racket news became public, there have been three specific complaints against a Prafulla Kanan based Special Adoption Agency (SAA) close to Habra.
The local Child Welfare Committee too has now informed the CID that they were forced to stop the SAA from functioning in 2015 and lodge a case at Habra police station after the SAA officials sent a child for adoption without completing basic formalities. “There was a particular case where a man killed his wife and the child was sent to the centre. Without anyone’s knowledge, this child was put up for adoption,” said a source. A final decision on a separate probe on adoption agencies are now being mulled at Bhawani Bhawan, claimed sources.
CID officers said that now that most of the main gang members of one such module has been nabbed, they will be concentrating on establishing the entire modus operandi of the gang. “Just like the foster parents, there are a chunk of other people – nursing home nurses, staffers, ambulance drivers and even some doctors – who knowingly or unknowingly helped the gang. But then, we are dealing with them on a case to case basis. Too many arrests might lead to the big players managing to wriggle away,” commented a senior officer at Bhawani Bhavan.
The CID said it has examined another senior doctor residing at Kaikhali in this respect – after two such doctors from Parnasree in Behala received similar summons – and they might be recording the statement of a few more. Sources said that the doctor was questioned amidst allegations that he had sought the help of a few nursing homes in the Gobardanga area of north 24 Parganas to carry out baby trafficking. Certain local residents have questioned the manner in which deliveries involving this doctor would often lead to deaths or even thefts of new born. “There are too many complaints in the past two weeks. We are looking in to the more credible information supplied to us,” added the officer.”
CID finds link between adoption centre and baby trafficking[Times of India 12/19/16 by Dwaipayan Ghosh]
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