Orphnage owners held for selling children

Chennai, Mar 2 (UNI) The Central Crime branch Police (CCB) today arrested the owners of two orphanage homes here for allegedly selling two children to a couple from United states, under the child adoption scheme here today.

Mr Augustin Daniel Assistant Commissioner of Police CCB said as per the direction of Madras High Court, the city police commissioner R Nataraj had constituted a special team led by Mr Daniel to trace the whereabouts of the two children. The team arrested the two owners who were remanded to judicial custody.

Mr Daniel said Banu, the wife of a pavement dweller in the city, had admitted her three children aged 6, 4 and 2 at one of the homes run by a person named Mr Raghupathy, following the death of her husband, a drainage cleaning coolie, in 1991.

However, afer she secured her first son Muthusamy from a farm house at Kalayampoondi in Kancheepuram District in 1996, Banu approached Raghupathy and asked him to return the other two children, Muthukumar and Muthulakhsmi. But despite her repeated attempts, Raghupathy would either turn her away or evade an answer.

Following this, she moved to the Madras High court, which directed the city police to trace her missing children.

The special team during the investigation, came to know that Raghupathy and his friend Thangavelu who was running the other orphanage had sold the children to the American couple for a huge sum with the help of the owner of the other orphanage.

The police also seized relevant documents pertaining to the case of illegal child trafficking at the orphanage run by Thangavelu.

Mr Daniel said efforts would be made through the High Court to retrieve the children legally from the US.

UNI RV VV TM DB2122