JALPAIGURI: A court here today remanded in 14-day judicial custody the prime accused in the Jalpaiguri child trafficking racket and others arrested in the case.
Besides Chandana Chakraborty, Chief Judicial Magistrate Debapriya Basu also sent her brother Manas Bhowmik, BJP leader Juhi Chowdhury, Jalpaiguri District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) Sasmita Ghose, her husband Darjeeling DCPO Mrinal Ghosh, and Sonali Mondal to judicial custody.
Chandana, the chairperson of NGO Bimala Sishu Griho; Sonali Mondal, the chief adoption officer of the NGO; and Manas, were arrested by the CID and charged with selling nearly 17 children, aged between 1 and 14 years, to foreigners by entering into shady adoption deals.
Juhi was arrested by the CID on February 28 from Batasia area in north West Bengal, close to the Indo-Nepal border, for her alleged involvement in the case.
Sasmita and her husband Mrinal were later arrested by the CID.
The CID had unearthed the child trafficking racket during raids at homes and nursing homes in Baduria area of North 24 Parganas district, in Behala in the southern fringes of Kolkata and some other parts of south Bengal in November last year.