Court asks Centre to aid CBI in Preet Mandir probe
17 June 2010
Court asks Centre to aid CBI in Preet Mandir probe
Mayura Janwalkar / DNA
Thursday, June 17, 2010 0:28 IST
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Mumbai: Expressing concern for 450 children lodged at Pune’s Preet Mandir adoption home, the Bombay high court on Wednesday directed additional solicitor general DJ Khambata to seek instructions from the Central Adoption Resources Agency (Cara) about what it proposes to do for those children.
Justice BH Marlapalle and justice Anoop Mohta have directed the Cara and the Union ministry for women and child welfare to co-operate with the CBI. The Cara has been asked to file its affidavit in one week.
The court was informed that Preet Mandir’s licence to carry out adoption activities was revoked in May 2007. The adoption home has challenged the revocation of their licence before the court.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing into allegations of Preet Mandir carrying out adoptions in an illegal manner, asked the court for six months to complete the procedure.
The court was also given a status report on the institute by the CBI.
NGOs Advait Foundation and Sakhee had moved court seeking action against Preet Mandir. Their advocates Pradeep Havnur and Abhay Nevgi had earlier told the court that a number of children lodged at the adoption home were found to be malnourished. The FIR filed against Preet Mandir states, “enquiry has revealed during the period 2005 to 2010 in as many as 70 instances, Preet Mandir has received excess money in the form of donations by extortion from Indian parents, amounting to more than Rs 50,000.”
NGOs Advait Foundation and Sakhee had moved court seeking action against Preet Mandir. Their advocates Pradeep Havnur and Abhay Nevgi had earlier told the court that a number of children lodged at the adoption home were found to be malnourished. The FIR filed against Preet Mandir states, “enquiry has revealed during the period 2005 to 2010 in as many as 70 instances, Preet Mandir has received excess money in the form of donations by extortion from Indian parents, amounting to more than Rs 50,000.”
The FIR also states that the donation, in many cases, was charged after the adoptive parents developed a liking towards a child and desperately wanted to adopt it. Refusing to pay the amount would stop the adoption process.
Investigations by the CBI, as written in the FIR of May 12, reveal that the adoption centre had fraudulently given away children in foreign adoptions by misleading their parents and had set up a temporary shelter home for distressed women in order to procure children from unwed mothers and give them in adoptions.