How an appendix operation on an HIV+ baby at Mumbai hospital exposed illegal adoption bid

When doctors at Wadia Hospital revealed the baby’s HIV status, the ‘adoptive’ mother disowned the child, said Ramkrishna Reddy, district child protection officer, Thane.

The Mumbai police have booked two women from Thane who allegedly adopted a child illegally after tricking the administration of KEM Hospital. A search is on to locate both the accused who hail from Kalyan (East).

According to police sources, one of the women posed as the other person at the hospital and delivered the child. This allowed the ‘adoptive’ mother to procure a birth certificate which stated that she was the child’s biological mother.

The matter, however, came to light after the baby developed health complications and doctors at Wadia Hospital found out that she was HIV+. A First Information Report in this regard was initially lodged at Thane’s Manpada police station on Saturday and was transferred to Mumbai’s Bhoiwada police station by Sunday.

As per sources with the police, the child’s biological parents come from a poor financial background. The baby’s mother, aged 38, tried to abort the pregnancy as her husband is a drunkard and they were struggling to run the family. During this time, she came in contact with another woman, aged 37, who was looking to adopt a child as she was unable to have a baby due to some health complications.

They then decided that the second woman would adopt the baby once it was delivered but legal adoption appeared to be unfeasible because the rules mandated that the child would be given in the custody of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), the statutory body under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, and then CARA would decide who would be the child’s adoptive parents as per laid-down procedures.

To bypass the tedious process as well as the long waiting list of eligible parents looking to adopt a child, the two women came up with a plan.

Delivering the baby in another woman’s name
As per the FIR, the pregnant woman got admitted to the civic-run KEM Hospital in Parel under the other woman’s name and with a copy of the latter’s Aadhaar card, pretending that it was an emergency. The hospital administration could not detect this switch.

The woman delivered the baby on October 11, 2024, and got discharged on October 15. Later, she handed over the baby to the ‘adoptive’ mother.

As per the FIR filed by Thane district Childline coordinator Shraddha Narkar, the baby’s health condition deteriorated a few months later. The adoptive mother then took the baby to Wadia Hospital in Parel on January 15, 2025.

“During the treatment, the baby had to undergo an appendix operation, after which doctors informed the (adoptive) mother that the child had contracted HIV and asked her to do the test as well. Panicking, the woman disowned the child and said that she was adopted,” said Ramkrishna Reddy, district child protection officer, Thane.

The hospital administration alerted the Sakhi Centre, Mumbai, which then informed the Thane unit of the Women and Child Development (WCD) department.

Even as the child’s treatment was underway at Wadia Hospital, Reddy and Pallavi Jadhav, the protection officer for institutional care, conducted an inquiry. The child is currently at Kalwa Hospital in Thane.

‘Illegal adoption violates child’s rights’

“Such illegal adoption violates a child’s rights and puts her safety and health at risk. There is a four-year-long waiting list of eligible parents wishing to adopt a child after clearing all eligibility criteria but such illegal adoptions are rampant. In the current case, the child’s appendix operation exposed the web of lies. Had the child not been hospitalised, the illegal adoption and her HIV+ status would have never come to light,” Reddy said.

The WCD officers got the FIR registered under sections 80 and 81 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, and sections 318(1), 318(4), and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at Manpada police station.

Reddy said the case exposes gross irregularities and negligence at public hospitals. “It is shocking how the woman managed to get admission at KEM Hospital in another person’s name, deliver a child, and get a birth certificate in another woman’s name. It would be a matter of inquiry how the child’s contraction of HIV was not detected at the time of birth,” he said.

A lot of improvement is needed in existing systems and procedures at government hospitals to prevent such illegal practices, Reddy added.