Rediff On The NeT: Hyderabad cops unearth another child trafficking racket

- Rediff On The NeT: Hyderabad cops unearth another child trafficking racket


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March 31, 1999

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Hyderabad cops unearth another child trafficking racket

Shireen in Hyderabad

The Hyderabad city police unearthed yet another child-trafficking racket involving a non-governmental organisation known as "Action for Social Development". A case was registered and ASD Executive Director N Sanjeeva Rao was arrested.

State Home Minister A Madhava Reddy told the assembly that the police raided an ASD creche at Gandhinagar and found 124 children, comprising 114 girls and 10 boys, with ages ranging between seven years to less than one year. Most of the children were younger than one and were from Mahbubnagar, Rangareddy and East Godavari districts, he said.

The ASD, which has its headquarters at Gandhinagar was established in 1985 and maintains three creches -- at Gandhinagar, Jawaharnagar and Malkajgiri in the city.

The police allegedly found some irregularities in the organisation's functioning and a case was registered at Musheerabad police station. Rao was arrested on Tuesday. The case has been handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department of Hyderabad for further investigation.

The home minister said the NGO got permission from the Central Adoption Resource Agency in 1991 to send children abroad for adoption. Till 1998, the ASD sent 122 children to foreign countries, including the United States, Spain, France and Norway.

In 1993, on the basis of allegations that there were irregularities in the documentation of adoptions by people within the country and abroad, the police registered a case at Tada in Nellore district.

The CID probed the case and the organisation's licence was suspended pending a full-fledged inquiry. Even as the case was under investigation pending a report from Interpol, the organisation managed to get the licence renewed in September 1998.

The home minister said the Women and Child Welfare Department has been asked to inquire into the activities of similar organisations in the state and report the matter to the government. The report is to be referred to the Central Adoption Resource Agency for further action, he said.

It may be recalled that on March 26, the police had raided the creche run by the Good Samaritan Evangelical and Social Welfare Association at Mahendra Hills and rescued 56 infants, 52 of them girls. They had been procured from poor tribal and other families and kept there for adoption by childless couples from foreign countries.

The association's director, Peter Subbaiah, was arrested from a lodge in the city on March 28. The case has been handed to the CID for further investigation. The police said Subbaiah was selling the infants to foreigners for US dollars 2,000 to 3,000 per child. In the last six months, 17 children have been sent to the US and one to Denmark.

The Congress party has demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the matter.

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