Child Kidnapping

EDITORIAL

Kidnapping of 18-month-old Maraya from Candolim and her recovery from Nizamuddin railway station in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Delhi is a pointer to growing inter-state crime. The Goa police deserves praise for rescuing the child and arresting the kidnappers, who had demanded a ransom of Rs 50 lakh, within 48 hours.

On the face of it, this kidnapping looks an amateur action to make some fast buck. But the modus operandi suggests that it was a well-planned operation. Had they been really novice in the game, they would not have left for Delhi. They rushed to Delhi only for the reason that the two main players Mohammad alias Sanzad Hyder Ali and Jasimuddin Sarfraz were natives of Paharganj of New Delhi. Once they had reached their destination it would have been a tough proposition to rescue the child. As in many child kidnapping cases, the maid servant was used as a conduit.

This may be the first case for Goa. But the fact is the kidnapping of kids has been multi-million booming business. It is know that this inter-state racket is patronized by private adoption agencies. Five kidnappers who were arrested on May 3, 2005 in Chennai had revealed that they had sold more than 400 children to an adoption agency. Sometime back the Delhi government had ordered an inquiry into the process of inter-country adoptions in 10 agencies in the capital. Only recently the Andhra Pradesh police blew the lid off an adoption racket in the country. Investigations reveal that India has become an international baby shopping centre. As many as 255 foreign adoption agencies (of which 131 are government bodies) and 74 Indian placement agencies are recognised by the Government of India for Inter-Country Adoption. Unfortunately there is no legislation that covers inter-country adoption.

Rekha, the maid servant of the De Souzas, along with her boyfriend and another man, kidnapped the baby when she was with her grandmother, Ms Lydia De Souza (75). Nevertheless this case should be an eye-opener for both parents and the police. The culprits may not accept the fact they belonged to an organised gang and what they did was only for making some fast buck. But this explanation would not be sufficient to ignore the future danger. Though there is a provision to inform the police of the details about the domestic hands, the government should make it mandatory. In this particular case of the De Souzas, the Goa police succeeded in nabbing the culprits even before the baby could be transferred to organized criminals' hands. But what is the guarantee that it would not prove to be successful if another similar incident takes place? There is urgent need for people and police to work out a preventive mechanism