Newborn 'sold' by parents to hospital nurse in Odisha's Jagatsinghpur, rescued
JAGATSINGHPUR: A newborn baby girl, allegedly sold by her parents, was rescued by a team of Child Helpline and Child Welfare Committee (CWC) here in Manijanga area under Tirtol police limits on Wednesday. The infant was found from the house of a staff nurse of Manijanga CHC.
An FIR has been lodged by CWC chairperson Bisweswari Mohanty in the connection in Tirtol police station. According to reports, on Tuesday, one Pratap Mohanty of Beheda village of Sailo panchayat had taken his expectant wife Kalpana to Manijanga CHC where she delivered a baby girl.
Expressing inability to fend for a girl child again as the couple already had a son and a daughter, they reportedly offered the child to a staff nurse Sagarika Ojha of the CHC. However, it is being suspected that there was an agreement on a piece of paper between the nurse and the couple, the latter stating that they have no objection to giving away their child.
They also reportedly stated they would not claim her as their child any time in future. Soon after the agreement, the parents handed over the new-born to Ojha and left the hospital.
As the news spread, a team of Child Helpline, Jagatsinghpur led by center coordinator Naresh Kumar Gochhayat, Child Protection Officer, non-institutional Udya Kumar Swain rushed to Manijanga CHC and rescued the new born baby from the staff quarters of nurse Ojha and handed her to the CWC on Wednesday.
Mohanty informed, "Sale of children is illegal. The nurse is a government employee but she has not followed adoption rules. We suspect the newborn was sold and therefore lodged an FIR in Tirtol police station."
After rescue, Child Helpline produced the child before CWC and later sent to a special adoption home in Jagatsinghpur for rehabilitation, she added. Tirtol police are investigating the case.