THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The baby believed to be that of Anupama S Chandran was taken into custody by a team of police officers, accompanied by an official with the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare (KSCCW), from Andhra Pradesh on Saturday. The team, which left the state capital in the morning, reached Darsiprakasam near Vijayawada by evening. The couple who were given the child in foster care as a pre-adoption formality handed over the baby boy when the officials served them a copy of the order of the district child welfare council.
The baby will be brought to Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday. A DNA test will be conducted at the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology to ascertain whether Anupama and Ajith are the baby’s parents. Once back, the baby will remain under the protection of the district child protection officer, and under the care of a fit person until the biological parents are identified. Anupama, who has been on an indefinite strike in front of the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare (KSCCW), is keen to suggest a person to that effect until she gets the baby back.
“It can be a relative or a friend and I believe I can give a suggestion in that regard,” she said. Her strike will continue until she is reunited with the baby, and KSCCW general secretary Shiju Khan and Child Welfare Council (CWC) chairperson N Sunanda are removed from their posts, Anupama added.
Meanwhile, the Thiruvananthapuram family court postponed the hearing of the case for 10 more days after the CWC informed the court that it needed more time to submit the final inquiry report. The court also criticised the KSCCW for having given the baby for adoption without the mother’s consent, and for its failure to produce the renewed original copy of the State Adoption Regulatory Authority’s affiliation license, which had expired in 2016.