JSCPCR writes to chief secretary Sudhir Tripathi asking him to set up an inquiry commission to look into the a... Read More

Ranchi: Police and the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) on Saturday refuted reports of 280 children missing from different Missionaries of Charity homes here.

Ranchi SSP Anish Gupta said, “We are investigating the matter but the reports of 280 children missing are not true. There are no such records.” Such reports began to do the rounds after a nun and an employee of Nirmal Hriday , a Missionaries of Charity shelter home at Jail Road here, were arrested last week for allegedly selling a child of an unwed mother for 1.2 lakh to a Uttar Pradesh-based couple.

To avoid a repetition of Nirmal Hriday-type incidents in future, Jharkhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights ( JSCPCR ) wrote to chief secretary Sudhir Tripathi asking him to set up an inquiry commission to look into the activities of children homes and shelters located at various places in the state.

JSCPCR chairperson Aarti Kujur said, “If there is a discrepancy at one shelter home, other centres may too have such problems. We want the government to find out the status of unwed mothers and records of children born at shelter homes.”

As regards the sale of Nirmal Hriday children, CWC chairperson Rupa Kumari said, “Police are investigating the matter. Our units spread across the state will start collecting reports on shelter homes as soon as we receive instructions from the government.”

Earlier this week, another CWC member Tanushree Sarkar said, After the incident in one branch, we cannot trust the other branches of Missionaries of Charity and we will not be sending children to them for shelter from now on.”

