CID slaps murder charges on baby trafficking accused

CID slaps murder charges on baby trafficking accused

Dwaipayan Ghosh | TNN | Dec 2, 2016, 08.36 AM IST

KOLKATA: The CID took a step closer to building a watertight case against the 20 alleged baby traffickers arrested so far -including four doctors -by slapping murder charges (IPC 302) on the accused. The fresh section was added on Thursday after the initial postmortem report of the remains of two babies, buried on the Machhlandapur NGO grounds, reached the agency headquarters at Bhawani Bhawan.

The findings hint that the babies might have been murdered about eight to 10 months ago. The move also came hours after CID arrested two Kolkata-based doctors for being involved in the scam.

The probe agency also slapped Section 88 of the Juvenile Justice Act that deals with negligence of caregivers who were employed at the two juvenile homes in Machhlandapur and Hanspukur, located in the two Parganas, respectively . Sources in CID said the prime reason behind slapping murder charges was to ensure that none of the accused could get bail.

CID sleuths said they were tracing the activities of the gang that has recruits not only across south Bengal, but even in states like Andhra Pradesh and Delhi. The gang was working like a supply syndicate: right from having spotters, getting potential mothers admitted to nursing homes, involving NGOs and finally preparing fake papers for adoption, an officer said.

"Each area of the gang was marked out. For example, while Baduria and Habra in North 24-Parganas were covered by Sohan Nursing home and Sujit Dutta Memorial Welfare Trust, it was Dr Tapan Biswas who screened poten tial victims with spotters like Najma Bibi. Ujjala Byapari looked after the babies," an officer said. "Similarly, for the vast stretch of Behala-Hanspukur-Rosopunja-Dostipur-Falta in South 24-Parganas, nur sing homes like South View in Behala and Purbasha Foundation and Education Society serviced it. Nityananda Biswas was the main ground agent.The adoption papers in Kolkata, though, were mostly prepared at Sree Krishna Nursing home on College Street from where medics Santosh Samanta and Dilip Ghosh were arrested," he added.

Meanwhile, a Gaighata woman, Kalpana Sarkar, alleged that Dr Tapan Biswas had removed her kidney during an appendix surgery . Following her complaint, a CID team visited her house on Thursday night.