Mangalore lawyer under Kerala police radar for allegedly selling kids

The Kanjangad police in Kerala is in want of a Mangalore based woman lawyer who had allegedly facilitated selling of two children in return for money.

 The shocking incident was reported a few days ago in Kanjangad under Hosdurga police station limits. 

Sulaiman (46) a resident of Aavikara near Kanjangad had sold his one-and-half year-old boy and six-month old baby girl at different periods for Rs 3.25 lakh. The local middlemen in the ‘business’, Basheer, Rashid and Moidu were arrested on Saturday, a day after police nabbed Sulaiman. According to Sulaiman and middlemen, a woman lawyer in Mangalore had taken the kids on behalf of ‘owners’ after paying the amount. 

The first sale of the boy took place one and half years ago, and for that the lawyer had taken Rs 25,000 as commission and each of the middlemen received Rs 10,000. The baby girl was handed over six months ago to the woman lawyer without the involvement of middlemen, Deputy Superintendent of police, Kanjangad N Pradeep Kumar told Deccan Herald. Shockingly, the same woman lawyer was the facilitator in a similar case that took place in Kasargod in June, 2013, wherein two kids were sold to two childless couple in Kundapur and Mangalore for Rs 1.60 lakh.

The police is focusing on whether any child trafficking racket has been involved in both incidents. 

Sulaiman who does odd jobs has two wives and has fathered eight kids in first wife and three in second wife. The sold out children were that of second wife and police said that the ‘business’ was with the complete knowledge of the parents with Sulaiman confessing that financial constraints forced him to do so. The tiff over the commission amount with Sulaiman and middlemen blew the lid off the incident. One of the mediators, Basheer, who originally hails from Kundapur in Udupi district, has brought in the woman lawyer into the scene to find out prospective buyer for the kids. Though clueless about the whereabouts of the kids, cops believe that children might have been handed over to childless couples in Karnataka. 

Though Kanjangad police reached Mangalore to question the lawyer, police has been so far unsuccessful in tracing her. 

Kasargod case

It was in 2013 June, Ratheesh-Prema couple had sold their eight-month and six-month old kids for Rs 1.60 lakh, with the lawyer facilitating the ‘deal’. Ratheesh has confided to the police that Rs 10,000 was given to the lawyer as commission. As the incident became an issue, police traced the kids, one from a merchant’s house in Kundapur and the second from Mangalore. Both were sold  to childless couple, who were looking after the kids well much different from their financially poor biological parents. The kids were later handed over to the custody of Kerala Child Welfare Committee. Though the lawyer appeared before Kasargod Town police in the case, it was alleged that political pressure relieved her off from further action. Currently, the police have filed a charge sheet in the case in Kasargod District Sessions Court. 

Adoption hassles

DySP Pradeep Kumar expressed the doubt that mostly childless couple, who are knocking every door to have a kid would be misled and persuaded into the business. “The presence of a woman advocate may make them to buy the argument that the deal was a legal one. The advocate might also cash in on this point to strike the deal”. Further, experts point to the delay in legal adoption procedures which triggers couples to look for unscrupulous methods to become parents. According to Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) guideline of 2011, to adopt a child of below three years of age, the composite age of the couple should not exceed 90 and the individual age should be between 25 and 50. 

In spite of this, the prospective couple should have a minimum monthly income of Rs 5,000. But the tragic situation is that, having fulfilled all these criteria, thousands of couple are in the registered queue for years waiting for their turn.