Preet Mandir adoption racket: NGO to approach HC to expedite case

Pune The Pune-based Sakhi organisation has decided to forward an application to the Bombay High Court to expedite the case of Pune-based adoption agency Preet Mandir. The CBI has registered a case against Preet Mandir for allegedly kidnapping rural poor children and selling them abroad.

With Sakhi seeking a copy of the FIR, Anjali Pawar and Advocate Abhay Nevgi of the organisation, on Tuesday said this is the third time that the investigation agency has carried out an inquiry and now they want justice to be meted out soon. The organisation along with Advait Foundation had filed two separate writ petitions in Bombay High Court against Preet Mandir in 2006-07.

Pawar said they would also want a thorough probe from the Women and Child Welfare department whether the children housed at Preet Mandir are actually destitutes. “If they are not, the children have to be handed back to their parents and the remaining children should be sent to other agencies in the district or to the districts they belong to. The children should not suffer because of the investigations,” she said.

In its communiqué issued by the CBI in New Delhi on Monday it is mentioned, “During the period 2002 to 2010, the Managing Trustee of Pune-based foundation Preet Mandir entered into criminal conspiracy with unknown persons and kidnapped the children of poor people in Maharashtra with a motive to send them in inter-country adoption to extort huge money from the adopting parents.” The CBI stated that investigation is on in the case.

In 2005, the CBI had given a clean chit to Preet Mandir. However, in 2006 and 2007, after writ petitions by Sakhi and Advait foundation filed in Bombay High Court, the court had asked the investigating agency to once again probe the matter. Last year in September 2009, the CBI admitted before the High Court that its earlier probe was “faulty”.

CBI has also mentioned that Managing Trustee of Preet Mandir was involved in illegal trafficking of children while he ran the racket from rehabilitation center at Kanhe Phata. Some of the unidentified officials of state government have also come under scanner for helping Preet Mandir.

Meanwhile, Preet Mandir refuted the allegations made by the CBI against Balwant Kartar Anand Foundation that runs Preet Mandir. “There is not a single case of kidnapping or trafficking of children as alleged by CBI. Children are admitted at Preet Mandir through judicial process. Preet Mandir is strictly following the JJ Act and Central Adoption Resource Agency guidelines and Supreme Court guidelines. The children are admitted after approval of the Child Welfare Committee and there are no illegal actions,” said the spokesperson.