CID busts another child trafficking racket in West Bengal, books school principal

Acting on a tip off, a team of CID has detained a primary school's head teacher Chandana Chakraborty, who was also the chairperson of an NGO- North Bengal People's Development Centre, earlier on Saturday and conducted raids at few locations in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal along with her, according to reports.

"We were receiving complaints of child trafficking against two children's home- Ashray and Bimala Sishugriha, which were run by Chandana Chakraborty led NGO- North Bengal People's Development Centre," a senior official of WB CID told IBNS.

"We have arrested Chandana Chakraborty, who is also the head teacher of Mainaguri Ananda Nagar Nimna Buniyadi Primary School, in connection with the case and seized several important documents relating to child trafficking from her possession," the official said.

Later on Sunday, Bimala Sishugriha (Children's home)'s Chief Adoptional Officer Sonali Mondal, who was reportedly associated with the organization since last 20 years, was also arrested for her alleged involvement with the racket.

After recovering few documents from Sonali Mondal's possession, investigators confirmed that the child trafficking racket had international links and they 'sold' babies to several countries, including Australia, Singapore, USA and UK.

"After going through the documents, which have been seized so far, we have come to know that at least 17 children, aged between 3 months to 10 years, were peddled to other states of India and foreign countries like Australia, USA, France and Singapore," an investigator told IBNS.

"The NGO used to target virgin mothers and bought newborns from them. Later those babies were sold to childless couples from other states or countries in the name of adoption with false documents," the officer further said.

Meanwhile, the CID has lodged an FIR in the case naming at least 19 persons, including BJP's women wing leader Juhi Chowdhury, involved in the case.

However, the two arrested- Chandana Chakraborty and Sonali Mondal- were produced in a local court on Sunday and were sent to the state probe agency's custody for 13 days.

"We are currently interrogating the duo to unearth the racket's root and catch others involved with the child trafficking racket," a CID official said.

Months ago, Bengal CID busted another child trafficking racket, which reportedly peddled more than 50 babies through an NGO in last two years, in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district and besides nabbing 18 persons in connection with the case, investigators rescued at least 32 newborn and toddlers from traffickers' custody.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)