Express News Service
PATNA: After probing the adoption process of three-year-old US girl, Sherin Mathews, the Bihar government has said that all the rules were strictly followed before the girl was handed over to the US couple by an adoption centre in Nalanda district that was ordered closed last month.
The girl, named Saraswati before she was adopted by Wesley Mathews and his wife Sini Mathews in June last year, was found dead on Sunday near her home in Richardson, Texas, after being reported missing on October 7.
The ministry of external affairs (MEA) had asked the Bihar government to verify if all the required formalities were fulfilled during Sherin’s adoption.
A report the Bihar government sent to the MEA after the probe said that “no violation of the norms” in the adoption process were detected.
“During our rigorous inquiry, we found that the orphanage here had followed all the norms of the adoption process. No irregularity has been detected,” said SM Thiyagarajan, the district magistrate of Nalanda, who had ordered the inquiry on Monday.
Findings of the inquiry along with details of the orphanage and its current status were sent to the MEA on Wednesday, he said.
The process of Sherin’s adoption, Thiyagarajan said, had started following the order of a district court as per the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. “The agency had also obtained a no-objection certificate from Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA),” added the district magistrate.
CARA, the nodal agency under the ministry of women and child development supervising the adoption of Indian children, had received four follow-up reports on Sherin from US adoption agency Holt International since the time of her adoption, according to Deepak Kumar, the CEO of CARA.
Mother Teresa Anaath Seva Ashram (MTASA), the orphanage and adoption centre in Nalanda where Sherin lived before departing for the US, was ordered to shut down operations on September 7 as the Bihar government cited several shortcomings in its functioning.
MTASA secretary Babita Kumari said the closure order was “ill-considered and devoid of due procedure,” and that the NGO running the institution plans to move court shortly. “Saraswati (Sherin) had no problems in drinking milk and eating when she was with us here. During the adoption process, her adopted parents appeared loving people,” she added.
