West Bengal Child trafficking racket: 20 kids rescued from old age home

Kolkata: Days after busting a child trafficking racket in Baduria, the criminal investigation department (CID) Saturday rescued 20 children, ten of whom are infants, from Millennium Old Age and Rehab Centre at Dostipur in South 24 Parganas’ Joka. The CID had arrested the centre’s owner, Bimal Adhikari (61), on Friday. He was produced before a local court, which remanded him to ten days’ police custody.

On Saturday morning, a team of representatives of the state child development department visited the centre along with officers of the Falta police station for inspection. The team was surprised not to find any elderly man or woman living there, an official said. The team instead found 20 children, and shifted them to a rehabilitation centre. Officials said the centre’s caretaker, Basanti Chakraborty, is currently absconding.

Local residents alleged they never saw any aged person at the centre. “The centre was home for children with newborns being brought in cartons of biscuits at night,” Gunadhar Haldar, a local, said. Another villager claimed childless couples were regular visitors at the centre.

Meanwhile, the ten newborns rescued by the CID from an old age home in Thakurpukur early Friday are suffering from infection and malnutrition, according to the doctors of the ESI Hospital where they undergoing treatment. Hospital superintendent Samir Kumar Chaudhury said the newborns were covered with dust when they were brought in. “The children weren’t getting proper care. All of them are suffering from infection and malnutrition,” Chaudhury said. A doctor said that while one of the babies is suffering from thalassemia, another is suffering from cerebral palsy.

Widening the net of its probe, the CID raided several nursing homes in Nadia, Burdwan and Hooghly during the day.