KOLKATA: CID officials investigating the baby trafficking racket operating from Kolkata and the two adjoining Parganas said they have now have proof that even adoption centres were part of the trafficking racket. CID sources said that among the 50 “workable” leads received so far from various complainants ever since the baby trafficking racket news became public, there have been three specific complaints against a Prafulla Kanan based Special Adoption Agency (SAA) close to Habra.
The local Child Welfare Committee too has now informed the CID that they were forced to stop the SAA from functioning in 2015 and lodge a case at Habra police station after the SAA officials sent a child for adoption without completing basic formalities. “There was a particular case where a man killed his wife and the child was sent to the centre. Without anyone’s knowledge, this child was put up for adoption,” said a source. A final decision on a separate probe on adoption agencies are now being mulled at Bhawani Bhawan, claimed sources.
Meanwhile, even as the CID has begun recording the statements of crucial witnesses in the baby trafficking racket that has witnessed 20 arrests so far, it seems it has found a legal solution to a tricky question. As of now, it has been decided by the top brass not to book any one of the five odd sets parents who had reportedly “paid” the trafficking gang in order to “adopt” the child.
“Adoption is a long and lengthy process. One of the key factors is whether the babies were orphans or whether their biological parents had permitted them to adopt their parents. Unless we trace the real parents or they appear before us willingly, we cannot go ahead and slap charges against them. Hence a decision on this – including whether we can use their testimonies in court to bolster our case - will be taken later after we get the DNA tests of the rescued babies completed,” said an investigating officer adding that the time to record their statements in court under CrPC 164 was yet to arrive.
CID officers said that now that most of the main gang members of one such module has been nabbed, they will be concentrating on establishing the entire modus operandi of the gang. “Just like the foster parents, there are a chunk of other people – nursing home nurses, staffers, ambulance drivers and even some doctors – who knowingly or unknowingly helped the gang. But then, we are dealing with them on a case to case basis. Too many arrests might lead to the big players managing to wriggle away,” commented a senior officer at Bhawani Bhavan.
