Nanded centre may have sold kids in past: City cops

MUMBAI: Tardeo police probing the alleged illegal adoption of a 10-day-old baby boy suspect that Satyashree Khade Gutte, director of Nanded-based adoption agency Sunita Gutte Shishugrah, may have struck similar deals in the past as well.

The cops, probing the case under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections for child trafficking and the Justice Juvenile Act, have so far arrested five persons in the case, including Gutte, the Tardeo couple and two of their relatives who had accompanied them to Nanded.

While the couple and their relatives have been sent to judicial custody, the child who is now 18 months old, has been sent to Manav Seva Sangh at King's Circle for rehabilitation. Gutte has been remanded to police custody till Wednesday.

During interrogation, one of the couple's relatives told the police that the agency was recommended by a "common friend" who had himself adopted a child from Nanded. "We are looking for the middle man to find out whether he too had illegally adopted a child," said investigating officer Nitin Randive.

The police said Gutte, daughter of an assistant police inspector attached to Nanded police, has been running the adoption centre for years without following the adoption procedure. She is accused of selling the baby to the childless Tardeo childless couple for Rs 1.9 lakh.

Gutte also allegedly helped the couple procure a fake birth certificate from Nanded Gram Panchayat by making them pose as Nanded residents. The police said she allegedly lied to them that the child had been donated to their institution by an unmarried woman but when asked whether she had a record of the case, she denied it.

"We are also likely to invoke the IPC section for cheating and forgery as well since the accused made a fake birth certificate," said Dnyanesh Devde, senior inspector, Tardeo police.

The adoption came to light following a tipoff in the form of an anonymous letter to Mumbai police commissioner D Padsalgikar. The top cop assigned the case to the social service branch, which summoned the couple before handing over the investigation to Tardeo police.

The couple was unable to give documentary proof of whether the boy was their biological child. They told cops they had adopted the baby from the agency and showed a handwritten receipt of Rs 1.9 lakh, including Rs 1.3 lakh paid as legal fees, Rs 45,000 as child nutrition fees and Rs 13,000 as other charges.