In the late evening, the orders were also sent to the home department and the director general of police, directing them to spring into action at the earliest. Sources in the department confirmed that a preliminary inquiry has suggested that more such incidents took place in the past.
The Women and Child Development Department has suspended the licenses of Nanded-based adoption center Sunita Gutte Shishugrah, from where a 10-day old boy was allegedly sold to a Tardeo couple. The department has also ordered inspection of every adoption center in Maharashtra and shifting of all the children from the Nanded center. The inspection will be conducted by the district officers.
In the late evening, the orders were also sent to the home department and the director general of police, directing them to spring into action at the earliest. Sources in the department confirmed that a preliminary inquiry has suggested that more such incidents took place in the past.
Tardeo cops, who are probing the Nanded centre case under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections for child trafficking and the Justice Juvenile Act, have arrested five persons so far, including Gutte, the Tardeo couple and two of their relatives who had accompanied them to Nanded.
While the couple and their relatives have been sent to the judicial custody, the child, who is now 18 months old, has been sent to the Manav Seva Sangh at King's Circle for rehabilitation. Gutte has been remanded to police custody till Wednesday. During interrogation, one of the couple's relatives told the police that the agency was recommended by a "common friend", who had himself adopted a child from there.
The police said Gutte, daughter of an assistant police inspector attached to Nanded police, has been running the adoption centre for years without following due procedure. She is accused of selling the baby to the childless Tardeo couple for Rs1.9 lakh.
Allegedly, Gutte also helped the couple procure a fake birth certificate from Nanded Gram Panchayat. Police said she claimed that the child was donated to their institution by an unmarried woman, but had no record to back the claim.
The case came to light following a tip-off in the form of an anonymous letter to Mumbai police commissioner Dattatray Padsalgikar. The top cop assigned the case to the social service branch, which summoned the couple, before handing over the investigation to the Tardeo police.
The couple was unable to give documentary proof of the boy being their biological child. They then told the cops that they adopted the baby from the agency and showed a handwritten receipt of Rs1.9 lakh, including Rs1.3 lakh paid as legal fees, Rs45,000 as child nutrition fees and Rs13,000 in other charges.
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