Hyderabad: A group of couples are fighting a legal battle for six months to claim children, who were rescued by the police and placed in a state home. In the meanwhile, one of the parents has died of a heart stroke.
These children were rescued from the couples who had purchased them after the police cracked a baby sale racket and rescued 50 children. The ‘adoptive’ parents have moved the court to get their custody back. The police contends that they did not adopt the children under due process.
About 10 couples have been pursuing a case in the High Court for their kids’ custody. They claim that they were tricked by child traffickers, who told the families that they were getting the babies through a legal adoption process.
“We have been trying to explain to the authorities that we are not criminals but are victims cheated by the traffickers who took advantage of our situation, gained our trust and made it look like a legal adoption by preparing forged documents,” one of the parents explained.
A foster couple from the Bapatla district of AP said they had adopted a 20-day-old baby with special needs. “It was the worst day in their lives when a police officer from Medipally informed us that the baby was not legally adopted. Then only we came to know that the traffickers cheated us,” the couple said.
These parents are complaining about the lack of access to the babies and the snail pace of the investigation of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in submitting a report to the court on whom these babies should be given.
“We have been living in the city for the past six months and not been allowed to see the kids by the Sishu Vihar authorities. My wife and I went to the Sishu Vihar to see our child but the authorities restricted us,” a foster father lamented.
A parent said that they had been informed that the High Court had passed an order directing the CWC to decide who should get the children —the biological parents if they reclaimed the children, or the ‘adoptive’ parents on the choice of kids and good parenting facilities — and submit a report. The report is awaited, and the children continue to stay in Sishu Vihar.
Advocate Kypa Satish Kumar, talking to Deccan Chroniclesaid, “The court emphasises the importance of adhering to legal procedures in matters of child custody and adoption. That’s why it emphasised the need for social investigations to ensure children’s safety. While the single-judge bench favoured the adoptive parents, the two-judge bench overturned those orders and said a CWC report was required to make a final decision. The court’s decision balances the interests of adoptive parents and biological parents and child welfare.”
