Seventeen months after Abhinav and Rekha Aggarwal lost custody of their son following allegations of illegal child trafficking, the family was reunited when a city civil court declared the Aggarwals legally adoptive parents of four-year-old Yatarth. On December 7, Yatarth was reunited with his parents after spending more than a year in a state-run orphanage. Even as they celebrate, the Aggarwals are keenly aware that Yatarth has borne the brunt of this case. “I accept I had committed a crime, and so did those who offered the baby to me. But the child was not at fault. He [Yatarth] became the victim in this case,” said Delhi-based businessman, Abhinav Aggarwal.
On July 5, 2019, the Aggarwals’ lives were turned upside down when Mumbai Police’s crime branch took their three-year-old adopted son Yatarth away and booked Aggarwal, 42, and his wife Rekha, 40, for illegal child trafficking. The shocked Aggarwals were among seven couples charged by Mumbai Police as part of its investigation into a child trafficking racket.
In November 2016, Aggarwal happened to see a photo of a nine-day old baby boy. “A relative of mine had planned to adopt the boy. But later they decided to have a baby by in vitro fertilisation (IVF),” said Aggarwal.
He and Rekha have a daughter, who was 15 years old at the time, and they decided to adopt the baby boy in the photo.
Their relatives introduced them to a social worker named Pawan Sharma. “The social worker told us he would take care of the paperwork and would also give us the baby’s birth certificate, stating the boy was legally ours. We were not aware of the actual procedure and within a few days, we had the child,” said Aggarwal, who has denied buying Yatarth as an infant. “I agreed to give donations to the social worker whenever the need arose. Over three years, I paid Rs 1.5 lakh in donations,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Their relatives introduced them to a social worker named Pawan Sharma. “The social worker told us he would take care of the paperwork and would also give us the baby’s birth certificate, stating the boy was legally ours. We were not aware of the actual procedure and within a few days, we had the child,” said Aggarwal, who has denied buying Yatarth as an infant. “I agreed to give donations to the social worker whenever the need arose. Over three years, I paid Rs 1.5 lakh in donations,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}In July 2019, Mumbai Police charged the Aggarwals and six other couples under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Sharma was later arrested and booked under the same charges. He is currently out on bail. While the trafficking charges against the couples are yet to be decided in court, on August 16, Bombay high court (HC) allowed visitation rights to all the adoptive parents.
The charges led the Aggarwals to discover that Sharma’s paperwork was not legally binding — as a result of which Yatarth was sent to an orphanage in Chembur and the Aggarwals were in judicial custody in July 2019. The Aggarwals got bail 10 days later, but the Child Welfare Committee refused to grant them Yatarth’s custody. “We realised we were not his parents legally and that we had committed a crime under the Juvenile Justice Act,” said Aggarwal.
The couple would not be able to see Yatarth for months. “It was around Diwali in 2019 that the court permitted me to see my child,” said Aggarwal, who remained in Mumbai, living in a hotel until March this year, when hotels were forced to shut during the lockdown. Since then, the couple have been in touch with Yatarth over video calls.
The Aggarwals have been doggedly pursuing the legal route to reuniting their family. In September 2019, Aggarwal moved HC, seeking the trafficking case be quashed and the Aggarwals be granted Yatarth’s custody. Meanwhile, in November 2019, the Aggarwals’ were directed by the civil court to initiate proceedings to legally adopt Yatarth.
On November 27, 2019, the city civil court asked CWC to submit a social investigation report within 45 days, but there were a series of delays and CWC ultimately submitted the report this year, in early October. Finally, on October 8, the civil court allowed the Aggarwals’ adoption petition and directed CWC to hand Yatarth over to the Aggarwals. This decision is unrelated to the ongoing criminal case in HC, which according to the Aggarwals’ legal counsel Raja Thakare, will take its own course.
Aggarwal’s mission now is to work towards simplifying the process of adoption in India. “I will fight for all my life for this issue,” he said, adding, “No parent should get trapped in this vicious cycle.” Priti Patkar, co-founder of Prerna, a non-governmental organisation that works with survivors of child trafficking, agreed that the adoption process is cumbersome. However, Patkar stressed that rather than simplification, what is needed is for all parties to know their legal rights, responsibilities and requirements. Patkar also recommended a robust hand-holding system for adoptive parents, so that they get guidance along the way.
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