Month later, 4 Bihar kids to reunite with kin

LUDHIANA: Almost a month after they were rescued from an illegal shelter home Packiam Mercy Cross Trust four children are set to be reunited with their parents in Bihar

Updated At : 07:00 AM Sep 17, 2018 IST

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 16

Almost a month after they were rescued from an illegal shelter home, Packiam Mercy Cross Trust, four children are set to be reunited with their parents in Bihar. The city police will send a team to escort them. This was confirmed by District Child Protection Officer Rashmi Saini to The Tribune today.

“The Child Welfare Committee (CWC) had written a letter in this regard to Police Commissioner Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill. Today, an official of the Police Commissionerate called me up and enquired about the procedure for handing over the children to their parents. In a day or two, a police party will take them to Bihar on a train,” Rashmi said.

She said these children would be produced before the CWC of Katihar and Gaya, the officials of which would hand them over to their families after verification.

Following complaints of child trafficking and religious conversion of inmates, the CWC had on August 20 rescued eight children (four each from Bihar and Jharkhand) from the shelter home during a raid. The Jharkhand kids were taken along by cops from their state on August 29 and handed over to their parents. Those from Bihar were kept at a government-approved child care home in Doraha, near here.

Thirty others were sent to Jharkhand by home owner Satyandra Prakash Musa without informing the authorities. Of these, 29 have been traced by the Jharkhand Police. Musa and his student, Junool Longa, have already been arrested.

As per the attendance register, nine of the inmates were adults. Their whereabouts are not known. Since 2006, over 250 children from Jharkhand and Bihar have stayed in the home, according to the police.

Meanwhile, Ajay Kumar Singh, chairman, CWC, Katihar (Bihar), told The Tribune on the phone that Joseph Tuddu, who claims to be the father of Andrew (13) and Asha (11), had submitted a petition alleging that the Ludhiana CWC was not handing over his children.

“I had already written to the Ludhiana CWC to expedite the procedure so that the children can be reunited with their parents,” he added. The other Bihari children are Sonu and Nandlal, both orphans from Gaya district. He said no FIR was lodged against Musa in Bihar as no complaint of trafficking or conversion had been received so far.