The newborn trafficking racket

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in Delhi has sent summons to senior government and police officers of West Bengal, after the state's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) unearthed a case of trafficking of newborn babies in the garb of child adoption, allegedly hand-in-glove with officers of the state government.

The summons were served to Jalpaiguri's District Magistrate (DM) and West Bengal's Additional Director General of Police (ADGP). According to senior NCPCR officers, while the DM responded and submitted related documents when asked for, the ADGP did not respond and has been re-summoned.

NCPCR member Priyank Kanoongo said that the tenure of West Bengal's Child Welfare Committee (CWC) ended in July 2013. "After this, an ad-hoc committee was set up which was illegal. The business it indulged in, over a period of two years, was not revealed. When the actual CWC was formed again on August 27, 2015, it was not handed over any previous records. In March 2017, when the NCPCR reached out to the officers to inquire about the number of kids who were legalised for adoption in those two years of ad-hoc, we were not given any documents. However, 20 of these kids were traced, five of which were to be sent abroad. But there are no records of how many more children were freed for adoption illegally. The number can be big," he said.

According to a chargesheet submitted by the CID on May 17 this year, during the investigation of this alleged scam, irregularities in the adoption process of newborn children came to fore. A report submitted by the CID, accessed by DNA, suggests that in 13 cases illegal adoption processes were followed in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 each; in 24 such cases irregularities were found in 2011-2012.

Twenty cases in 2012-2013 and 17 cases in 2013-2014 also suggest similar illegalities.

The report further mentions, "As per investigations, no children were sent abroad. However, the process of adoption of five children was undertaken for which several documents were collected by the Specialised Adoption Agency (SAA)." Of these five children, three were to be adopted in the USA and one each in France and Singapore.

Seven people who have been arrested for the alleged irregularities, were named in the report as, Chandana Chakrobarty (55) secretary NBPDC (North Bengal Peoples Development Centre, Jalpaiguri), Sonali Mondal (30) a social worker, Juhi Chowdhury, Manash Bhowmik, Member of CWC Darjeeling Debashis Chanda, District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) Darjeeling Mrinal Ghosh and his wife Sasmita Ghosh, DCPO Jalpaiguri.

The case so far

July 2013  tenure of West Bengal CWC  ended. An ad-hoc committee was set up 
August 27, 2015  actual CWC was formed
January 2017  CID registered FIR against illegal adoptions case and 7 were arrested following the probe
March 2017  NCPCR reached out to the officers to inquire but were not given any details
May 2017 CID submitted chargesheet