A one-year-old child, who was allegedly given up for adoption without his parents’ consent in Kerala, was brought back to the state on the night of Sunday, November 22, after the Child Welfare Committee issued an order to this effect. The one-year-old boy, who was in the foster care of a couple in Andhra Pradesh, is believed to be the child of Anupama S Chandran, who alleged that her parents kidnapped her baby soon after his birth and gave him up for adoption through the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare (KSCCW) without her consent a year ago.
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.
The Child Welfare Committee (CWC) had on November 18 issued an order directing the KSCCW to bring the child back to Kerala. 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 back to Kerala. The team reached the Thiruvananthapuram airport on Sunday night. The child has been handed over to a child care institution as directed by the CWC.
A DNA test would be carried out soon to identify his biological parents, according to the CWC order. Anupama (24) and her partner Ajith are on a protest in front of the KSCCW office at Thycaud here for some days, demanding to get her baby back.
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.
However, the Peroorkkada police 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.
Watch Anupama's interview with TNM here: