Mother Teresa’s Charity Home Nun Arrested For Selling Babies In Jharkhand, 3 Children Recovered

Minister of Women and Child Development (WCD), Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, has instructed the state governments to get child care homes run by Missionaries of Charity all over the country inspected immediately.

 

 

The decision was taken after the Jharkhand child trafficking case came to light, wherein three children were rescued after being trafficked by three nuns of the Missionaries of Charity.

 

 

Three children have been recovered in the child trafficking case in Missionaries of Charity in Jharkhand on Saturday.

The search for the fourth child is in underway.

 

 

The police received news that the children were sold to various couples.

 

 

One of the arrested nuns of Missionaries of Charity said that she sold two more babies, but does not know where they are now.

" I have sold two more babies. I don't know where they are now," said the arrested nun.

 

 

 

 

Speaking on the issue Ashish Gupta, Senior Superintendent of Police, Ranchi said they do not know the exact number of how many students are missing, but as per the information they received from the District Social Welfare Officer around 120 children were admitted.

 

 

"We do not have the exact numbers of the children missing, but as per the information we got the DSW, 120 children were admitted here from since 2016. The children were sold to the couples for monetary benefits," said the SSP.

 

 

Speaking about the nuns, the senior police official said that nuns have confessed their involvement in the case, also the recoveries were made on the basis of their confession.

 

 

"The nuns have confessed that they were involved in the trafficking of the children. Their confession helped us to recover the kids. Their confession has been recorded. They are being interrogated further. There will be developments in the case as the facts come to light," added Gupta.

 

 

The two nuns of Missionaries of Charity were arrested on July 5 in relation to the case.

 

 

The nuns violated Section 40 of the Juvenile Justice Act and have booked under Section 8- and 81 of the JJ Act.

 

 

Additional Director General (Law and Order), Jharkhand RR Mallik requested for a CBI inquiry in the case and also to seize all accounts of Missionaries of Charity and five of its associate organisations on July 11.

 

 

 

 

Members of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Ranchi and the police interrogated the nuns at the premises of Missionaries of Charity, 'Nirmal Hriday' on July 4, following which an FIR was lodged on the grounds of trafficking underage tribal girls.

 

 

The CWC in the recent past has been constantly monitoring the situation at the Missionaries of Charity. 

 

According to an official release, the mandatory registration of CCIs and linking to Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has been provided in Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 which came into force more than two years ago but some orphanages had challenged the validity of this clause.

 

 

However, the Supreme Court has since dismissed the petitions and has upheld the validity; vide their order of December 2017. 

 

 

Since then, approximately 2300 child care institutions have been linked to CARA and about 4000 are still pending for linkage.

Gandhi has also expressed displeasure that even the children available for adoption in the 2300 CARA linked institutions have still not been brought into on the adoption system.

 

 

She is expected to discuss this issue in the meeting of the Women and Child Development Ministers of States on July 17.