Adoption row: Infant brought back to Kerala from Andhra Pradesh

PTI, Nov 22, 2021, 8:08 AM IST

The infant, who is mired in a recent adoption controversy in Kerala, was brought back to the state from Andhra Pradesh late on Sunday night by a team of officials from the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare (KSCCW).

The one-year-old boy, who was in the foster care of a couple in Andhra Pradesh, is suspected to be the child of Anupama S Chandran, who has raised allegations against her parents for kidnapping her baby soon after his birth and giving him in adoption through the KSCCW without her consent a year ago.

The Child welfare Committee (CWC) had on November 18 issued an order directing the KSCCW to bring the child back to Kerala.

A team, led by KSCCW officials and comprising an escort of a Special Juvenile Police unit, received the child from the adoptive parents in Andhra Pradesh on Saturday and brought him back to Kerala. The team reached the Thiruvananthapuram airport on Sunday night.

The child has been handed over to a child care institution as directed by the CWC.

A DNA test would be carried out soon to identify his biological parents, according to the CWC order.

Anupama (24) and her partner Ajith are on a protest in front of the KSCCW office at Thycaud here for some days, demanding to get her baby back.

The woman’s allegation that her child was forcibly taken away from her by her father, a local CPI(M) leader, has triggered a political controversy in the state.

The government had announced a departmental probe into the incident.

Anupama had accused her parents of forcibly taking away her newborn child from her soon after its birth a year ago and alleged that though she had complained about it to the police several times since April, they were reluctant to register a case against her family members.

However, the Peroorkkada police here has said a case was registered against six people — her parents, sister, sister’s husband and two of his father’s friends — and that the delay happened as they were awaiting legal opinion.

A family court last month stayed the adoption process of the child and directed the police to submit a detailed report in the matter in a sealed cover.