Thiruvananthapuram, (Samajweekly) It was a day which this 22-year-old Kerala mother had despaired of seeing, after her four-day-old boy was forcibly removed from her side by her parents in October last year and the state authorities remained indifferent to her plight. But thanks to a huge media blitz that began on this October 13, a local family court here on Wednesday handed Anupama’s child back to her.
Around 3 p.m., the baby boy was brought to the family court and the judge asked that he be brought to his chamber.
Soon, he called a doctor for a medical examination of the baby and when he was declared fit, Anupama and her husband were called to his chamber.
Then the judge came into the open court and ordered the state agencies to hand over the baby boy to Anupama.
And thus ended Anupama’s struggle to get back her baby, and this had pitted her against the CPI-M-led Pinarayi Vijayan government, which faced flak from Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan on Wednesday over its role in the “missing baby” case and was accused of “child trafficking”, not adoption.
Around 4 p.m, Anupama, along with her husband Ajith, walked out of the court room, with her son close to her chest, as it began raining. Anupama and her few women supporters including legislator K.K. Rema, whose husband T.P. Chandrasekheran was hacked to death by CPI-M activists, came walking to show the child to the waiting media and said she will first go to her protest place, where she has been sitting for the past 14 days demanding action against the wrongdoers – the state Child Welfare Committee, and the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare (KSCCWC).
Thanking the entire media for the support, she said she will go home and will decide the future course.
“Once again, I thank each one who supported me and we will continue our protests till the wrongdoers are punished. I also believe that action will be taken against those who played foul. The nature of the protest will be decided very soon. We now want to bring up our son and make him a responsible citizen. I take this opportunity to thank the Andhra couple who took care of our son, after they got him through adoption,” she said.
Earlier in the day, Satheesan levelled a serious allegation on the role played by Vijayan and his party leadership.
“Handing over the baby boy to adoptive parents in Andhra Pradesh was not adoption but a case of child trafficking. With each passing day, the ‘conspiracy’ in the case got unearthed. There has been a total ‘foul play’ and every rule in adoption was thrown to the winds and the authorities concerned acted in the most irresponsible manner,” the Congress leader said.
“Till date Vijayan has not said a single word on this issue. He has to come out of this silence,” added Satheesan.
The fight to get her child back swung in Anupama’s way as the DNA test result came positive on Tuesday and the authorities allowed the parents to see their child, housed under government custody, here.
On Wednesday morning, a detailed probe on the matter, conducted by senior bureaucrat and the Women and Child Development Department Director T.V. Anupama, was completed. The report, according to sources, indict the two agencies responsible for adoption – the KSCCWC and the Child Welfare Committee of having committed serious violations. This contradicts the claims made by State Health Minister Veena George.
On hearing the media reports of the senior bureaucrat’s report, Anupama expressed happiness.
“I am very happy that the truth is coming out as everything what the Council and the CWC did on this adoption was grossly wrong. Just imagine the plight of Andhra couple who got my baby in adoption. Despite my complaint and pleas, the CWC and Council did nothing and they did the wrong. All this could have been avoided, if they had done their job in a responsible manner,” she said.
Incidentally, the first battle was won by Anupama when on Sunday night, a four-member team formed on the directions of the CWC returned with the ‘missing’ baby from Andhra Pradesh.
On Monday, the couple and the baby’s samples were taken for the DNA test.
As a family court here was about to give the final clearance for the adoption, the huge media blitz came as succour to Anupama. The Vijayan government directed the CWC and KSCCWC to act quickly after the court stopped all the follow up procedures for legalising the adoption to the Andhra couple.
Anupama, the SFI activist and grand daughter of one of the top most yesteryear CPI-M leaders, and her husband Ajith had approached the state police chief and the CWC, but it was only after the couple approached the media that things started to move.
Meanwhile with Vijayan under severe duress, in all likelihood, heads are likely to roll – probably of KSCCWC chief N. Sunanda, and CWC in charge Shijukhan – both political appointees.
