Missionaries of Charity staff arrested for selling babies

RANCHI: Jharkhand police arrested a woman and detained two nuns of Missionaries of Charity, a trust founded by Nobel laureate Mother Teresa, for allegedly selling the infants born to unwed mothers at the institution.
Kotwali police station officer in-charge Shyamanand Madal said on Wednesday, “An FIR was lodged under Section 370 of IPC (exploitation) and three people were detained for questioning.One woman has now been placed under arrest and we have strong evidence against a nun in detention and she too could be arrested soon.”
The FIR was lodged after Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of Ranchi went on a regular inspection around a week ago and found that a child had gone missing from the institution.
CWC member Pratima Tiwari said, “Missionaries of Charity’s Jail Road chapter gives shelter to unwed mothers who have no place to give birth to their babies. In one of our inspection trips to the institution, a week ago, we found that one male newborn was missing.”
When the CWC members questioned one of the nuns, she told them that the mother has taken him away. “We contacted the mother and she told us that she does not have the child. We followed this up with institution again. The sisters then called the UP-based family to whom they had sold the child for Rs 1.2 lakh,” Tiwari said. On Tuesday, the family approached CWC and told them that the organisation took the money from them as ‘hospital fees’.
Sources said Anima Indwar, a worker at the organisation who has been arrested, confessed that children were being sold to various families and has gave a written list of five such babies.
Social activist Baidnath Kumar said Missionaries of Charity stopped adoptions from their organization across India in October 2015, but their Ranchi-based wing continued to give away children. “If you visit the place, you can find one or two women at the gate enquiring about their children who were born there, but were not handed over to them. I got this information in 2016 and had informed the special branch back then. The organization has one wing in every district and each one of them should be investigated,” he said.
TOI tried to contact Missionaries of Charity’s Jail Road branch till late in the evening but got no response. On getting in touch with the organization’s Hinoo Road chapter, a nun who preferred not to be named, said they had no clue about what was happening at their other centre.
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