Proofs from adoption racket jigsaw

Ruksh Chatterji

CNN-IBN

Pune: Adoption agency Preet Mandir may have tried its best to burn possibly incriminating documents but CNN-IBN's Special Investigations Team has salvaged the evidence that exposes several irregularities in the functioning of the organisation.

Sifting through the soot and putting the pieces together, the team recovered complete files of two cases and a record of all the Australian visas applied for by Preet Mandir.

Also the diaries complete with entries build towards the increasing documentary evidence of irregularities in this adoption racket.

Visa forms in possession of CNN-IBN show that the children were not fed properly and suffered from Protein Energy Malnutrition, Vitamin D deficiency and muscular disorders.

It was also found that five Australian visa applications were filed with the high commission on one day. This means that five Australian families had come down together to adopt Indian babies, which is another highly unlikely possibility.

The baby export list to the US has also made a shocking revelation. Eleven children were sent in one year, by assembly line averaging one a month. Five of them have been sent to one agency in the US called Cascade International Network: Canada, Europe and Australia.

But, it is a handwritten page retrieved from the embers, which shows Preet Mandir's international network spread across the world, from Canada, to the UK, to Italy and down to Singapore and Australia.

However, Preet Mandir seemed unwilling to comment on these findings. In fact one of the trustees, former editor of the Maharashtra Herald Y V Krishnamurthy was seen escaping from CNN-IBN cameras in a Toyota Qualis.

But, despite these evasive tactics, Preet Mandir has become the centre of political debate in Pune. The Shiv Sena was the first to react to the

matter by distancing itself from party worker, Amar Sanke and asking for legal action.

“We demand that what that there should be investigation of all that has been happening in Preet Mandir,” Shiv Sena leader, Nitin Ghate said.

The Nationalist Congress Party went a step further, announcing a demonstration on Monday.

“We will protest in front of the women and child department,” NCP, Pune President, Mangesh Gole said.

But these are mere political rumblings, which are asking for the end of political apathy.

But to shut down baby shops like Preet Mandir, one these political murmurs will have to rise to a crescendo not just in the Maharashtra Assembly but also in Parliament to change India's Juvenile Justice laws.