Police have rescued one more child, allegedly sold by a Ranchi shelter home run by Missionaries of Charity, from Jharkhand’s Simdega district.
With the latest recovery, the total number of rescued children has gone up to three. “Of the four children allegedly sold (by the shelter home), the third child was rescued today from Simdega. A few people have been detained for questioning in this regard,” Ranchi Senior Superintendent of Police Anis Gupta told PTI.
The police said they came to know about the child from Simdega after questioning the two people arrested in the case.
Meanwhile, the search for the fourth baby allegedly sold from Nirmal Hriday, the Ranchi-based shelter home is underway. On Thursday, police had arrested Sister Konsalia and Anima Indwar, an employee of the organisation for allegedly selling infants for adoption.
Ranchi Bishop supports ‘Missionaries of Charity’
The Roman catholic church has come out in support of the accused and alleged that the police have extracted a confession by pressurising them.
“The nun has told their lawyer that she was made to sign under force. She was pressurized… The sisters are absolutely innocent. I am appealing to all, allow them to do their work in peace.” Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas of Ranchi told NDTV.
He also called the controversy a systematic attempt to malign the organisation which has been serving the state for nearly 60 years.
“The First Information Report seems to have accused the sister of being responsible for baby sale… I want to make it absolutely clear that a whole organisation cannot be maligned for one or two people”.
Fake news about missing kids
A news report claiming 280 children were missing from different Missionaries of Charity turned out to be untrue.
Ranchi SSP Anish Gupta refuted the reports and said: “We are investigating the matter but the reports of 280 children missing are not true. There are no such records, according to Times of India
Police busts baby selling racket
Last week, police busted a baby trafficking racket and arrested a woman employee and the in-charge of the local Nirmal Hriday on the charge of selling a child born to a minor inmate of the shelter home earlier this month. The police have come across four such instances at the shelter home where infants were sold for about Rs 1.2 lakh each.
The arrests were made following a complaint by Rupa Verma, the chairperson of Ranchi Child Welfare Committee.
On July 3, Saurav and Preeti Agrawal from UP’s Sonebhadra district approached the CWC with a complaint that Indwar, who allegedly sold them a newborn boy in May, had taken back the child on the pretext of completing court formalities and had not returned him to the couple.
