A member of the ‘Missionaries of Charity’ running ‘Nirmal Hriday’ – a shelter home for destitute women – was arrested on charges of selling children at Ranchi the capital city of Jharkhand on Wednesday. Police said that a racket of selling children in lieu of huge amount of money has been busted after a couple from Uttar Pradesh complained to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) here that they were not given their child despite payment of Rs 1.2 lakh.
Police have lodged an FIR against the Missionaries of Charity for being involved in human trafficking by the CWC. City SP Aman Kumar said that a sister working with the ‘Missionaries of Charity,’ Anima Indwar, was arrested and the involvement of others were also found during the interrogation.
According to information two sisters were being interrogated by police. Kotwali Police Station Officer in charge SN Mandal said that Rs 65000 have been recovered from Anima.
“It was found during the course of investigation that they were selling infants of unwed mothers at Rs 50,000 to 1.5 lakh. At least four children have been illegally sold by them,” said Mandal
According to CWC Chairperson Rupa Kumari a couple Saurabh Kumar Agrawal and Preeti Agrawal from Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh had a deal with Anima. The child was born on May 1 and was sold to them on May 14. However, Anima called them again in the last week of June and asked to come to Ranchi for some legal formalities. When the couple came to Ranchi Anima dodged them and took the child.Kumari said that the couple did not find Anima and came to CWC where the matter was disclosed. When the CWC investigated the matter they came to know about the racket. It was also found that three more kids were sold by Anima and others. Police raided the shelter home at East Jail Road with Child Welfare Committee and rescued 13 pregnant women to be shifted to probation home.
