Hours after the child in the missing baby case was brought to Kerala from Andhra Pradesh, Anupama, who is believed to be the child’s mother, told TNM that she and her husband want the DNA test to happen in their presence. “We had requested for the child’s medical examination to be conducted in our presence. We also wanted them to take the child’s samples in our presence,” he said. She asked how she can believe that the samples are taken from the child without proof of the same.
“What if they do manipulations in the samples? How will I believe them? I had also requested to see the child once, but that was also denied. They need to do this at least in our presence, I don't believe these people who have already committed several crimes,” Anupama told TNM.
However, the samples of the child have already been taken and it was not in the presence of Anupama and Ajith. Health Minister Veena George said that the sample collection of the child was recorded on video, and the samples of Ajith and Anupama will be collected at 2.20 pm.
The Child Welfare Committee (CWC) on November 18 had issued an order directing the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare (KSCCW) to bring the child to Kerala. The one-year old boy was in the foster care of a couple in Andhra Pradesh. The child is suspected to be the child of Anupama, who has raised allegations against her parents for kidnapping her baby soon after his birth and giving him in adoption through the KSCCW without her consent a year ago.
A team, led by KSCCW officials and comprising an escort of a Special Juvenile Police unit, received the child from the adoptive parents in Andhra Pradesh on Saturday and brought him to Kerala. The team reached the Thiruvananthapuram airport on Sunday night.
The child was handed over to a child care institution as directed by the CWC. The DNA test is being carried out as per the directions of the CWC.
Anupama and Ajith have been on a protest in front of the KSCCW office at Thycaud for some days, demanding to get her baby back. Her allegation that her child was forcibly taken away from her by her father, a local CPI(M) leader, has triggered a political controversy in the state. The government had announced a departmental probe into the incident.
Anupama had accused her parents of forcibly taking away her newborn child from her soon after its birth a year ago, and alleged that though she had complained about it to the police several times since April, they were reluctant to register a case against her family members.
The Peroorkkada police has said a case was registered against six people — her parents, sister, sister's husband and two of his father's friends — and that the delay happened as they were awaiting legal opinion.
A family court last month stayed the adoption process of the child and directed the police to submit a detailed report in the matter in a sealed cover.