Baby-selling probe in Ranchi's Missionaries of Charity to widen, says police
Ranchi, July 7 (IBNS): More shelters run by the Kolkata-headquartered Missionaries of Charity (MoC) and other groups are likely to be covered by a probe into the sale of babies as the Ranchi branch of the organisation, a senior police officer in his interaction with NDTV has revealed.
A woman worker and a nun at the Ranchi shelter were arrested for selling infants for adoption. The police officer said the ambit of the probe is likely to be widened as other shelter homes also may be indulging in such activities.
However, the Ranchi branch of the MoC is not new to allegations like these.
Dr OP Singh, who took over as the child welfare committee head in 2014 told NDTV about how he went to the shelter to investigate a case regarding child trafficking.
Four years later, the scandal came into light after the local child welfare authorities alerted the police about a new-born missing from the shelter that was supposed to take care of unmarried pregnant women and distressed mothers.
The Child Welfare Committee of the state had initially received a complaint regarding an infant who was brought to the shelter by a family, who later had a change in mind and returned back.
But they were denied the right to repossess the infant.
It came to light that the baby had actually been sold without proper paperwork.
On further investigation and probe, the welfare committee encountered the fact that there were at least four other similar cases where newborns were given up for adption without proper paperwork.
Mallick added, “By this trend, it seems the case will widen.”
To prevent similar occurrences in the future, 22 children and 13 girls living in Nirmal Hriday were moved to a new place to stay.
Chief Minister Raghubar Das expressed his shock at the incident and later said that a state wide probe must be conducted. He also asked his office about how the investigation would be done according to a government statement.
The Kolkata house too has expressed shock and disbelief at this development in its Ranchi branch.
Sunita Kumari, the spokesperson of the MoC said, “We can't believe a worker has done this... Also for a sister to admit that she has allowed her (staffer) to do this... it is not possible. But if it has happened, we must look into it".
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