ANTI-TRAFFICKING OP UPROOTS FOUR KIDS FROM THEIR HOMES

Adoptive couples’ only hope is High Court, which could hand them the custody again.

Four families which accepted lifelong responsibility of unwanted babies and nurtured them for months have been torn apart by a hurried police inquiry into suspicions of interstate child trafficking that have proved unfounded.

In December, the Mankhurd police snatched from the families four babies — whose biological parents didn’t have the resources or will to raise them — assuming the infants had been abducted from Mumbai and sold in Goa, Karnataka, and Gujarat.

The infants, now aged between 5 months and 10 months, were placed in a government-approved shelter’s care only for cops to conclude that no real crime had been committed: the biological parents had willingly consented to their children being raised in a new family.

The realisation came too late as the infants’ immediate future is now ensnared in legal complexities, which do not favour the four adoptive families.

As the infants were declared as rescued victims of a trafficking ring, the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) will either seek to return them to the biological parents, who didn’t want them in the first place, or put them up for adoption.

If the latter option is initiated, the four couples, from Gujarat, Goa and Karnataka, may not necessarily get the custody as they had not signed formal adoption papers with the biological parents. Only affidavit were signed by both parties, a process that is not recognised by the law.

It’s a heartbreaking prospect for the couples as they had been raising the children as their own for months, even giving them names. Nearly a month after the children were brought to Bal Anand orphanage in Govandi, some of the couples are still camping in the city with the hope of holding them again.

“Divyesh is my son. I held him, fed and bathed him every day for 10 months. I didn’t let him out of my sight even for a minute. Suddenly one day, he was taken away from me?” said 40-year-old Vasanti Gaokar, who brought home Divyesh when he was only 15 days old.

The Gaokars live on the outskirts of Ponda city in Goa. “Every day, my mother-in-law, who is 80 years old, asks: ‘Where is my grandson?’ We don’t know what to tell her,” she said. “She sits in the veranda all day waiting for Divyesh,” said Vasanti, who recently returned from Mumbai.

Unusual case also disturbs cops

The case has also taken an emotional toll on Mankhurd cops who thought they were pursuing a major child trafficking case, but unwittingly removed disowned children from their new loving families.

“The adoptive mothers broke down and begged us not to take the children away. We saw that they had taken very good care of the children. It’s been a tough case emotionally,” said an investigating officer. “We don’t want the kids to suffer and we will not oppose their new parents’ formal adoption applications.”

The case was triggered by the arrest of a 50-year-old social activist who arranged for the informal adoption of a baby stolen from a Mankhurd couple. The woman, Noorjahan Mulla, 50, was not aware that the baby had been snatched, her family members claim.

She told investigators that she had also helped four other needy couples to complete informal adoptions. The Mankhurd police promptly traced the children and brought them back to Mumbai. But they later received confirmation from the biological parents that their children were not abducted. They handed them over to new families that were in a better position to rear them.

Investigators told Mirror they were not filing any kidnapping charges against the Gaokars and other three families. But some money was paid to the biological parents at the time of the informal adoptions and this has complicated the issue.

“We are trying to figure out what section to apply. But no charges of trafficking or abduction will be filed,” said senior inspector Ganesh Kasle of the Mankhurd police station.

Neela Dsouza, from Karwar city in Karnataka, said her sister fell into depression after she could not conceive after several attempts over nearly 10 years. “Her life changed the day we brought home a 10-day-old baby boy with the help of Noorjahan. But everything has changed again and she cannot stop crying,” Neela said.

She added: “Neighbours have stopped visiting us because they think we have committed some crime. We are not criminals. We just didn’t know the legal procedures for adoption.”

Families move court

The Dsouza family has sought the Bombay High Court’s intervention. Another mother, Neelima Betkekar from Goa, is also making rounds of different offices to get her four-month-old adopted child back. She refused to comment saying she would wait for the court’s order.

Kala Sundar Vedha, director of Bal Anand, said the four infants were brought there by the police. “We don’t know the full story, but we were told a baby theft racket was busted,” she said. “The babies are still under trauma and keep crying. In such cases, it is better if they are returned to the same families who were looking after them.”

CWC chairperson Sharda Talareja said the committee cannot handover the children as there was a monetary transaction in the informal adoptions. “But if a court issues an order, we will follow it,” she said.

Deputy police commissioner (zone 6) Shahji Umap said the investigation was under way.