E-Paper
Man arrested for raising money for 19 ‘orphaned’ kids from MP in Raipur
The poor families of the children were allegedly promised good money for letting them accompany the man to Raipur, said the police
A man has been arrested for allegedly bringing 19 tribal children from neighbouring Madhya Pradesh to Chhattisgarh’s Raipur, passing them as orphans, who lost their parents to Covid-19, and seeking donations for them, police said. The poor families of the children were allegedly promised good money for letting them accompany the man to Raipur, they added.
Additional police superintendent (Raipur) Tarkeshwar Patel said the accused Naresh Mahanand claims to be an evangelist. He added they were probing whether the children were brought to Raipur for conversion.
Patel said Mahanand is the director of an NGO. He added they have arrested him under the Indian Penal Code’s Section 420 B (fraud) and the Juvenile Justice Act for bringing the children illegally to Raipur. Patel said as most of the children have parents and were brought to Raipur on the pretext of providing them with a good life.
Police said Mahanand ran a campaign on social media and also distributed pamphlets requesting financial support for his orphanage. Mahanand claimed his organisation was taking care of the orphaned children, they added.
Chhattisgarh and Madhya Police were investigating whether Mahanand is part of a bigger and organised network.
Investigators said prima facie parents of the children are believed to have been under the impression that Mahanand’s organisation was working on behalf of the government. The mother of one of the 19 said last month they came to know that the organisation is working with the government for Covid 19-affected people. “They promised us that the kids will get a good education, so we handed our children to a manager of the organisation,” said the mother of the 11-year-old.
Some of the 19 lost their parents to Covid 19 and their guardians sent them to Raipur. The children were brought back to Mandla in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday. A 10-year-old boy among them said they were locked in a house and not allowed to go anywhere. “There were two employees in the house, and they would provide us very poor-quality food. We mainly got boiled pulses to eat and poor-quality rice.”
Patel said they received a complaint from a woman and child development officer two days ago that an unregistered organisation brought the 19 children from Madhya Pradesh and was seeking donations in their name, saying they were orphaned during the pandemic. “We found the children living in a very poor condition. We rescued them.” He added the children were produced before a Child Welfare Committee, which recommended the charges to be invoked in the case.
According to the 2019 National Crime Records Bureau report, 30 children went missing daily in Madhya Pradesh. Most of such missing cases were reported from the state’s tribal areas.
