Inter-state child-selling racket: CWC refuses to grant custody to couple who ‘purchased’ child

The CWC has also refused to allow the couple to visit the two-year-old boy, who was sent to Bal Anand, a specialised adoption agency in July, when the racket was busted.

THE MUMBAI Child Welfare Committee (CWC) has refused to grant permanent or temporary custody to a couple who had allegedly purchased one of the six children rescued by the Mumbai police from an inter-state child-selling racket. The CWC has also refused to allow the couple to visit the two-year-old boy, who was sent to Bal Anand, a specialised adoption agency in July, when the racket was busted.

“The committee is mindful of the fact that incidents of child trafficking is rampantly increasing. Children are being trafficked under the garb of adoption, from hospitals, nursing homes and institutions that do not figure in the adoption set up at all. The committee cannot encourage the practice of illegal adoption,” the CWC stated, while rejecting the application filed by the couple earlier this month.

The boy, along with five others, all aged between 18 months and seven years, were rescued by the Mumbai Police crime branch in July and, as per orders of the CWC, sent to Bal Anand.

The police claimed that the couple and others, from whose custody the children were rescued, had not completed any legal formalities to adopt the children. The “adoptive” parents were arrested in July and later granted bail by the sessions court.

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