Grandmother’s investigation plea against Preet Mandir dismissed
Asseem Shaikh TNN
Pune: A special court’s refusal on Tuesday to issue direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation to further probe into the inter-country adoption racket, involving the city-based Preet Mandir, has left a 70-year-old woman distressed in her fight against the adoption centre to get back her two granddaughters.
Kisabai Tulsiram Lokhande, a resident of Khandala in Satara district, had handed over her granddaughters — Komal and Ashwini — to an observation home at Karad for taking care and providing education, following the death of their parents in 2004-05. However, the Satara child welfare committee without taking Lokhande’s consent shifted the girls to Preet Mandir for rehabilitation.
Lokhande, in a plea filed before the court, had alleged that Preet Mandir in connivance with government-run agencies had “sold” the girls for Rs 5-25 lakh. Lokhande argued through her lawyers that Preet Mandir had issued an advertisement in a local Marathi daily to show that the girls were destitute.