India demands return of adopted child

ANP

HILVERSUM – An Indian boy that was adopted by a Dutch couple six years ago must return to his country of birth. Indian authorities are demanding that the child undergo a DNA test and be reunited with his birth parents. A police investigation in India reportedly indicates that the child was not voluntarily put up for adoption but stolen and sold to an orphanage.

The television programme Netwerk reported this on Tuesday on the basis of the police reports and investigation in India. The Dutch adoption parents received a letter from the Indian police in February asking them to return the child.

The reports to which Netwerk has gained access show that the boy disappeared from his family's home in the middle of the night in 1999. In 2005 the Indian police arrested a gang of kidnappers who admitted they had stolen the boy and sold him to an orphanage. The child was put up for adoption via an adoption agency but it has now emerged that the release forms regarding his family history were forged, Netwerk reports.

When the biological mother heard that her child was still alive, she said she planned to do everything in her power to get the boy back. "Some people say: your child has a good life there, leave him be. But I am waiting for my child." Last year the mother started legal action to try and get her child back. The court has not yet made a definitive ruling.

The adoptive parents say the situation at hand is terrible, for the biological parents as well. It is unclear whether they plan to give the child back to the biological parents. The Dutch couple have called on the media to leave them alone in the best interests of the child.