Baby girl rescued near Mangalore

The Child Development Programme Officer (CDPO) of Mangalore Rural cracked a child trafficking case and rescued a one-month-old girl child at Kinnigoli near Mangalore on Monday.

On a tip-off, the CDPO raided a house at Kinnigoli where a family was fostering the baby for the last 23 days. The rescued baby has been shifted to Fit Institution in Puttur.
Preliminary investigation has traced the origin of the child to a Catholic organisation in Hyderabad.

The child, whose mother is an unwed, has reportedly changed four hands since its birth.
Child Welfare Committee (CWC) chairperson Asha Nayak told Deccan Herald that the CDPO raided the house based on the information given by the health workers of a government health clinic at Kinnigoli.

The health workers grew suspicious on finding a baby in the house of Sanjeev (name changed), in the absence of the pregnancy records. They passed on the information to the CDPO.

Sanjeev told the officials that it was handed over to him by Rita (name changed), an unmarried woman from the neighbouring village.

Illegal adoption

On questioning Rita, she said she had adopted the child illegally from the Catholic organisation in the second week of October.

Rita had taken the baby to fill the vacuum created by the recent death of her nephew. The child was given to the organisation by an unwed, who was getting married soon.
However, the parents and family members of Rita, who learnt that the child belonged to another community and was adopted illegally, refused to foster the child and forced Rita to get rid of the baby.

This led her to hand over the baby to Sanjeev, said Asha Nayak, confirming there was no money transaction involved.

Efforts to trace mother

The CWC is making efforts to trace the mother of the baby and get in touch with the Catholic organisation.

“The inquiry is on and no complaint has been registered in the police station yet. The baby is healthy and will undergo a medical examination soon,” she said.