Probe ordered against childless couple who ‘purchased’ infant

MUMBAI :The Bombay high court on Friday directed the Tardeo police to produce investigation papers related to a case involving a local childless couple booked for

MUMBAI :The Bombay high court on Friday directed the Tardeo police to produce investigation papers related to a case involving a local childless couple booked for allegedly ‘purchasing’ an infant from a Children’s Home at Nanded after paying Rs1.90 lakh.

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The division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Amjad Sayed posted the application filed by Mahesh Pawar, his wife and sister seeking to quash the offence registered against them under section 370(1) of the Indian Penal Code.

Pawar’s plea stated that a friend told him he could adopt a child at Nanded and gave him the name of a woman working at the Sunita Gutti Children’s Home there. Pawar went to Nanded in June 2014, where the woman asked him for Rs1.90 lakh. Pawar paid her and was given a 10-day old infant, states his plea.

In December 2015, the Tardeo police registered an offence against Pawar, his wife and sister after they received information that the trio illegally purchased a child without the requisite adoption formalities.

The trio told the court that they paid not to “purchase” the child, but towards charges of the Children’s Home and to meet the legal fees required to complete the adoption process.

They contended that the child is now one-and-half years old and they have cared for him right from the time he was an infant.

On Friday, when the plea came up for hearing, the judges sought to know what action the police had taken against the home and its functionaries.