Adoption row: Anupama seeks removal of Child Welfare Council officials, to resume agitation
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Thiruvananthapuram: Former student activist Anupama S Chandran is preparing for another round of agitation, this time before the office of the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare over the controversial adoption of her child.
She alleged that the inquiry into the case was not going on in the right direction, adding that it went against what had been promised by the government earlier.
Anupama said she would launch an agitation, demanding removal of the chairperson and general secretary of the Council for Child Welfare from their posts and protection of her child by the State Government. She alleged that both of them continued to cling on to their respective posts to scuttle the ongoing probe.
She pointed out that the Council for Child Welfare denied reply to the police's questions on the adoption process involving her child on the pretext of legal immunity. The Child Welfare Committee also did not reply to the police's queries on adoption.
The reply furnished by the Council was that they received an abandoned baby boy at the 'Ammathottil' on the date which was mentioned by Anupama in her complaint. But no replies were given to questions like the present whereabouts of the baby and whether the boy was given for adoption.
The Council replied that they have the legal immunity in not replying to these questions and if necessary, the police can approach the Child Welfare Committee. Though the police gave a letter to the Child Welfare Committee requesting them to respond to these questions, there was no reply.
The issue
It has been alleged that Anupama's parents had taken away her three-day-old baby born out of wedlock in October 2020 and handed him over to the Child Welfare Panel, which gave him to a couple seeking to adopt a child. She alleged it was done without her knowledge or consent, and the authorities failed to act on her complaint for six months.
Anupama's parents had been opposed to her relationship with Ajith, a divorcee, who was a former local leader of the CPM and its youth wing Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI). She gave birth to a child when in a relationship with Ajith.
Anupama was associated with the Students' Federation of India, CPM's student wing.