Identities of biological parents faked

By K. V. Subramanya

BANGALORE, MAY 6. Preliminary investigations by the Corps of Detectives (CoD) into the adoption racket has revealed that the adoption centres in Andhra Pradesh had `faked' the identities of the biological parents of 20 children from Gulbarga District who were offered for adoption.

Highly placed sources told The Hindu here that according to the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) rules, a child belonging to one State cannot be put up for adoption by an adoption centre in another State.

To ensure that this rule was not violated, the adoption centres in Andhra Pradesh, which had taken 20 children from Lambada tandas in Konchavaram and surrounding villages of Chincholi taluk in Gulbarga District, allegedly created fake documents to show that the biological parents of these children were from Andhra Pradesh, the sources said.

``Going by the statements of the witnesses and the biological parents, the CoD found that in a span of four years 20 children from Konchavaram and surrounding areas were given to adoption centres in Andhra Pradesh, mainly the John Abraham Memorial Bethany Home in Tandur of Ranga Reddy District,'' the sources said. ``However, there is no record in any of these centres to show that a single baby from Karnataka was put up for adoption.''

The sources said, ``records have been forged by the adoption centres to show that the biological parents of these children were from Lambada tandas in Tandur and surrounding areas in Andhra Pradesh. But investigations have shown that these tandas exist only on paper.''

A senior officer in the CoD said that ``what had happened to those 20 babies and their present whereabouts'' would be the crux of the investigation. ``The poverty-stricken biological parents are not interested in getting their children back. They are not willing even to identify their children and are not co-operating with the police. This has come as a major hurdle to the investigation,'' the sources said.

If the need arose, the CoD may, in due course, seek the Government's permission for conducting DNA tests to establish the biological parents of the children.

Meanwhile, the CoD which has launched a manhunt for the prime suspect in the child adoption racket, Savithri Samson of the John Abraham Memorial Bethany Home, has alerted the immigration checkpoints at all airports in the country to ensure that she does not flee the country.

``Savithri, a green-card holder, has her agents in many places abroad, and we suspect that she might leave the country at any time,'' the sources said.

Incidentally, Savithri had moved the Karnataka High Court for anticipatory bail on April 24. The CoD sought time to file objections. Savithri, according to the sources, was a close associate of a senior Congress leader from Cuddapah District in Andhra Pradesh.

In a related development, the CoD sleuths have checked all the 11 CARA-recognised adoption centres in Karnataka, 10 in Bangalore and one in Mangalore, to find out whether similar rackets were being operated at these centres. ``But nothing incriminating was found at any of these centres which are functioning in accordance with the CARA rules,'' the sources said.

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