Seven Years on, Jalpaiguri Child Trafficking Victims Await Justice

While the CID claims it is still investigating matters, affected families hold on to hope and several of the accused – said to have political connections – are out on bail.

Jalpaiguri: It has been over eight years since Kajal Basfor last saw her son, Ganesh. In 2016, Ganesh ran away after facing his mother’s scolding and a beating. As per the Child Helpline record, he was found at New Jalpaiguri Station in North Bengal, following which the police took him to a temporary shelter.

Kajal came to Jalpaiguri hoping for a reunion, but was instead locked up at a shelter home called Ashraya. Her three-year-old daughter Dipali was forcefully taken away to another shelter home, Bimala Shishu Griha. While Kajal was released after a few days, Dipali was held captive at the home.

Seeking help, Kajal and her husband approached the Jalpaiguri Child Welfare Centre and the district collector. The Child Welfare Centre clarified that two members of the Child Welfare Committee, seeing Kajal’s emotional state, deemed her unfit to raise a child, leading to their separation.

Kajal finally got to reunite with her daughter after a few months, but the search for Ganesh is still on. “They returned my daughter as she looks a lot like me. I heard that my son is living at a home, but I am yet to meet him,” said Kajal, who lives in Birpara, around 63 km from Jalpaiguri town in West Bengal.

In nearby Siliguri, Sanu Das is waiting to reunite with her daughter. Her two daughters, aged five and eight, went missing in 2016 while she was admitted to a hospital. Despite extensive searching, Sanu Das couldn’t find her daughters and sought help from the Darjeeling Legal Aid Forum.

The Jalpaiguri Child Welfare Committee (CWC) initiated an investigation into the short-stay homes where children were being taken. While one of the children was found at a shelter home, police investigations revealed that the younger child was sold to a childless couple. The CID summoned the couple to the Jalpaiguri CWC, where Sanu identified her daughter and demanded her return. However, the adoptive family is reluctant to relinquish rights over the child. In booth these cases, the shelter homes were being run by a teacher-turned-NGO owner, Chandana Chakraborty.

The case, and where it is now

In 2017, Jalpaiguri town was rocked by a large-scale child trafficking racket run by an orphanage owner with political connections. Seven years later, the CID is yet to file the final chargesheet even as three of the seven accused arrested by the police are out on bail. As per records, during this time, the CID has questioned 33 of the 73 witnesses, raising questions about the progress of the case.

“I have taken charge recently. Seven people were arrested during the initial days of the case – two were child welfare officials. The government officials are still in jail. Some politicians were also questioned. But my predecessor would know more,” Chayan Bhattacherjee, district inspector of Jalpaiguri, told The Wire.

The investigation began after authorities found babies being smuggled in biscuit boxes in Baduria, North 24 Parganas in 2016. This discovery led the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) to file a complaint with the CID in January 2017. The complaint pointed to “irregularities” at three homes run by Chandana Chakraborty in Jalpaiguri.

Around the same time, in 2016, a member of the Government Child Welfare Committee in Jalpaiguri, Subodh Bhattacharya, raised another red flag. He accused an NGO official in Jalpaiguri of running a child trafficking operation disguised as a charitable organisation, and even alleged government involvement.

This prompted the CID to take over the investigation in 2017, leading to the arrest of Chakraborty, the head of Bimala Shishu Griha and Ashray, and her brother Manas Bhowmik. The Ashray Orphanage used forged documents and fake stamps and certificates, and had allegedly sold at least two dozen children. According to the CID, the cost for each child sold abroad ranged from Rs three to five lakh, while for those trafficked within India, the charges varied between Rs one and three lakh.

In the course of her interrogation, Chakraborty informed the CID that BJP leader Juhi Chowdhury accompanied her to Delhi to address the trafficking matter and held meetings with BJP leaders Kailash Vijayvargiya and Roopa Ganguly, who were later interrogated by the agency.

Chowdhury was arrested from near the Nepal border, following which the state BJP suspended her and her father, Rabindra Narayan Chowdhury, from the state committee. However, then Rajya Sabha MP Ganguly openly vouched for her innocence. BJP leader Dilip Ghosh also promised to provide her with legal help. In 2018, the West Bengal CID questioned BJP national secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who was in charge of West Bengal during that period. Vijayvargiya termed the questioning ‘political vendetta’.

Chowdhury was released on bail two and a half years after her arrest. She told The Wire, “The matter is sub judice. I do not want to comment on this.”

Chakraborty’s brother Bhowmik, also out on bail, has refused to speak to the media.

Since 2020, the case has gone off the radar in West Bengal. Officially though, the CID maintains that the Jalpaiguri child trafficking investigation is ongoing. “People close to the ruling parties at the Centre and in the state were running this racket. North Bengal is strategically located close to Nepal, Assam, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. The tea workers are in dire poverty. On the pretext of social activity, they wanted to make huge money by trafficking or selling children in the name of adoption, using agents. They did not follow any laws related to adoption. A section of government officials were involved with them,” said a senior CID official involved in the investigation.

The case also came under scrutiny from the Supreme Court, and in 2020 both the National and West Bengal Commissions for Protection of Child Rights were castigated by the court for losing sight of their primary duty to protect children.

“This case is a classic example where in the fight between the State Commission and the National Commission the children have been, all but forgotten. We are sorry that this Court has to spend its time resolving such disputes,” observed the bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose.

In 2019, Subodh Bhattacharya, the whistleblower un the case, was unceremoniously dropped from the Government Child Welfare Committee by the West Bengal government. In 2023, Subodh and his wife Aparna Bhattacharya died by suicide, leaving a note holding Trinamool Youth Congress leader Saikat Chatterjee and three of his aides responsible for their deaths.

In the suicide note, the couple alleged that Subodh was harassed by Chatterjee for naming him in the child trafficking case. Subodh’s complaint had led to a chargesheet against seven individuals, including Chandana Chakraborty, the names of Chatterjee and three others were omitted by the CID. Chatterjee used to work as Chakraborty’s lawyer and reportedly facilitated 20 of the 52 adoptions from Chakraborty’s shelter homes, but later claimed to have disassociated himself after coming to know of the irregularities.

Chatterjee surrendered to the police in October 2023, following the dismissal of his anticipatory bail plea at the Supreme Court, but was released on bail soon after. His anticipatory bail petition at the Calcutta high court in June 2023 was handled by advocate Kishore Dutta, who became the state’s advocate general earlier this year.