CBI files chargesheet in Preet Mandir case

8 March 2011
CBI files chargesheet in Preet Mandir case
It contains names of 114 witnesses, 168 documents against accused

Vijay Chavan
Posted On Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 06:03:07 AM

The Special Crime Branch of the CBI on Tuesday filed an 87-page chargesheet against six accused including trustees of Preet Mandir and then chairman of Child Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) for their alleged involvement in illegal child procurement racket and extorting money from the parents.

The chargesheet filed by CBI contains 114 witnesses’ names and 168 documents describing the depth of crime and conspiracy.

Inspector S Bhattacharya, of CBI (Mumbai), who is an investigating officer, filed the charge sheet through lawyer Vivek Saxena in the court of Special Judge S N Sardesai.

Managing Trustee of Balwant Kartar Anand Foundation alias Preet Mandir, Joginder Singh Bhasin (72), his trustee wife Mahinder (68) and son Gurpreet (42), Vasudev Gangadhar Darshane (60) who is superintendent of Vasudev Babaji Navrange Balak Ashram in Pandharpur, then social worker with Preet Mandir, Kalyani Nagar, Chandrashekhar Admane (39) and then Chairman of CARA, New Delhi, Jainendra Kumar Mittal (55) are the names mentioned in the chargesheet as accused in this case.

According to the chargesheet, the investigation has revealed that during the period of 2002-10, Joginder Singh had entered into criminal conspiracy with Mahinder, Gurupreet, Darshane, Admane, Mittal and collected children from all over the state with a motive to send them for in-country and inter-country adoption to extort huge money from adoptive parents.

Preet Mandir orphanage
Preet Mandir-I, located in the Camp area and Preet Mandir–II at Kalyani Nagar were orphanage centres while Sai Dham was a rehabilitation centre for distressed women.

The chargesheet further stated, “Joginder was also in illegal procurement of children and for this purpose, he opened a rehabilitation centre, Sai Dham, at Kanhe Phata, near Pune in 2004.

Joginder, Darshane and Admane had fraudulently kidnapped four children of Ramesh Dattatray Kulkarni, fabricated documents and illegally confined the four minors and then sent them in inter-country adoption.
Joginder had fraudulently obtained rejection slips from Indian parents and then forged these rejection slips with a motive to use these slips to send children in inter-country adoption.”

As part of the investigation, CBI probed some 70 in-country and five inter-country adoption cases of Preet Mandir. The charges say that trustees had allegedly misappropriated trust’s fund to the tune of over Rs 47 lakh.

Preet Mandir has six accounts, five saving accounts and one Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) account to collect foreign remittances, with Union Bank of India, Camp branch.

Joginder is common signatory for all accounts. Joginder extorted money from Indian parents for adoption in the form of donation before handing over the adopted child.

All three family members of Joginder had misappropriated the orphanage funds for their own use during 2002-10 by availing payment of credit card bills raised due to use of their credit cards issued in personal names.

The more interesting fact mentioned in the chargesheet is that Joginder had vastly misappropriated the trust’s fund for luxury goods, air travel and stay in five-star hotels.

CARA’s then chairman Mittal habitually accepted considerations from Joginder with whom he was having official dealings.

CARA being the central authority which is functioning as the nodal body in the country in the matter of adoption. Special judge S N Sardesai announced the next date of hearing is on April 8.

Modus operandi

Talking to Pune Mirror, an investigating officer said Singh would enable prospective parents to visit Preet Mandir.

Subsequently, the meeting was organised, the couple would show interest in a particular child and Joginder would hand over the child to prospective parents with or without agreement for foster care and once the bonding is cemented between the couple and the child, he would make unreasonable demand of donations running into a few lakhs rupees upto US$10,000.

Charges on scammers

Joginder is already out on bail in this case while other accused are out on anticipatory bail since October. All six accused in Preet Mandir case have been charged under Section 420 (cheating), Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) and Section 467 (forgery).

The accused have also been charged under sections 13(2) and 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.