No adoption procedure followed by either party

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 4

In a major development in the case of adoption of an 11-year-old girl by a couple and her rape by her adoptive father, the police have found that the girl was handed over to the accused couple without following any legal procedure by either party.

The girl’s real mother as well as the middlemen who facilitated her adoption may face action for illegally handing over the girl to strangers.

On Friday, the police arrested the accused, Balwinder Singh (37), who is a security guard at an amusement park located on the Ludhiana-Jalandhar highway and his wife.

An elderly person, Pritam Singh, father of Balwinder, has also been booked by the police on the charges of rape and criminal conspiracy. According to the girl, Pritam had once bit her on the face due to which she could not attend school for days, and he also raped her. The adoptive grandfather, who is not living with the family at Laduwal, sexually assaulted the girl several times.

The ACP West, Gurpreet Singh, confirmed the real mother of the girl and her foster parents had not followed any procedure required for adoption and they were not having any legal documents. The real mother only showed some affidavit which was signed by some people as witnesses. But mere affidavit could not make the adoption legal.

“We are investigating if the real mother had sold the girl to the couple by taking any money. Anyone involved in the illegal adoption will not be spared,” said the ACP.

Sources said some persons from Goraya and Jalandhar, including Paramjit Singh Pamma, acted as mediators in handing over the girl to the couple and they had signed the affidavit. The police are likely to question the mediators and the girl’s mother soon.

Meanwhile, the couple was produced before the court on Saturday. They were remanded in one-day police custody. After a medical examination of the girl, she was also sent to Children’s Home run by Swami Ganga Nand Bhuri Wale International Foundation at Talwandi Khurd village.

In a statement to the police yesterday, the victim said she was adopted by Balwinder in July last year. For two months, he treated her as daughter but from September onwards, he started sexually assaulting her. In the past several months, he raped her for a number of times. His wife, despite being aware of the matter, did not object to his immoral act. The girl was also forced into prostitution by the family.

The girl was living in Hoshiarpur with her parents and two siblings, a sister and a brother. After her father, who was the only breadwinner in the family, died, her mother sent her for adoption by Balwinder. Two of her siblings were now living at their relative’s place while her real mother reportedly married some one near Phagwara.

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