54 children rescued in Andhra adoption racket bust

HYDERABAD: Fifty-four children were rescued from an orphanage run by the wife of a senior IPS officer on Thursday, giving a new twist to the child-trafficking probe.
The orphanage called ''Precious Moments'' situated on the city outskirts is managed by Anita Sen, wife of additional director general of police (recruitment) Swaranjit Sen, official sources said.
A team of officials from the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) inspected the premises twice since Wednesday and seized all records. The authorities then moved in swiftly and shifted 54 children to Shishu Vihar, a state-run child care centre here, taking the total number of children rescued since last week''s crackdown to 160.
This is the third adoption centre to be raided by officials of the state Women Development and Child Welfare Department to unearth what has now turned out to be a well-oiled child-trafficking racket.
A preliminary examination of records revealed that Precious Moments was resorting to ''illegal adoptions'' though it had a licence only to take care of ''neglected, abandoned and street children till their rehabilitation'', sources in the state Women and Child Welfare Department said here.
"Prima facie, we have found that this unlicensed centre was resorting to irregularities. The records are not in order," the collector of Ranga Reddy district, Ajay Jain, said.
According to reports, when officials went to the orphanage to shift the inmates, Anita Sen resisted the attempts and got into a heated argument with them.
While the officials contended that Anita Sen did not have proper registration to run the centre, she argued that she had. When asked to show the documents, she said she either had them at home or were under lock-and-key.
``We will probe Roda Mistry also and take action if necessary,'''' Jaganath Patti, deputy director of CARA, told Anita Sen. Patti was accompanied by S Saraswathi, assistant director of CARA, and another official.
The district collector was in constant touch with the director of the women and child welfare department, Shalini Mishra, who advised him that the children from the home be immediately shifted. However, since it was 9.30 p.m. and the children had slept, Mishra agreed that they be shifted in the morning.
While reporters waited to talk to Anita Sen, she left by the back door without meeting anyone.
When contacted, Roda Mistry of the ICSW said allowing foreign adoptions through the ICSW was ``absolutely legal''''. ``Any registered organisation can send the children through ICSW,'''' she told The Times of India News Service, adding that even Precious Moments had the `Fit Persons Institute'' licence given by the women and child welfare department.