Kerala government’s Woman and Child Development (WCD) Department will start an inquiry into the case of a child allegedly abducted from its mother by its grandfather, a leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – CPI(M) in Thiruvananthapuram. WCD Minister Veena George said on Friday that departmental secretary Reena George will be in charge of the investigation.
The case had created a controversy in recent days after it came out that the child, born in October 2020, was given up for adoption by its grandfather, Jayachandran, local committee member of the Peroorkada CPI(M). While he claimed that it was done with the permission of his daughter and mother of the child, Anupama, she has spoken out to the media that this was not the case. Jayachandran told the media that since Anupama was unmarried, the child was 'illegal' and that she was not capable of looking after it.
“There are a lot of things to probe here. Was the child left in the Ammathottil (an electronic cradle run by the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare, where abandoned children are taken up for adoption) or handed over to a panel of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) by the family for adoption. In the latter case, the CWC panel should contain a woman and the child’s mother should also be present during the handover. Now it’s the child’s own (biological) mother that’s asking for the child. What’s most important is that the mother gets the child,” said Minister Veena George.
Watch: Minister Veena George on the case
The CWC had said that two kids were abandoned at the Ammathottil in October 2020. One was adopted. A DNA test was done on the other child and it didn’t turn out to be Anupama’s child. The CWC is also facing the heat for not acting on Anupama's complaint in April 2021 and not stalling the child's adoption.
Though the Minister said that the issue came to her attention only two days ago, Anupama and her husband Ajith had been running from pillar to post for the past several months, in search of their child. They had approached the police, several ministers of the state and CPI(M) leaders, they said in an interview to TNM. However, they received no help.
CPI(M) district secretary Anavoor Nagappan also said that proper police investigation should be conducted in the case. He said that Anupama had approached the party office and spoken to him on the phone. However, he had to tell her that it could not be solved party-wise and advised her to proceed legally.
Anavoor Nagappan then spoke about Ajith’s first wife, whom he had separated with. Ajith was still married to her legally while beginning a live-in relationship with Anupama. “She (the first wife) was a member of the Muslim community and theirs was a love marriage. Imagine what her situation will be when the marriage has broken apart? This is not something I or the party could interfere in. I hope the police do the work properly and present it before the court,” Anavoor Nagappan said.
Watch: Anavoor Nagappan on the case