The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday said that passports will be issued for children adopted from India only after approval from the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
The decision comes in light of the death of three-year-old Sherin Mathews in Texas, United States. Her adoptive father Wesley Mathews had reported her missing from near Dallas on October 7.
Initially, the father had told the police that his daughter went missing after he told her to stand outside their house at 3 am as punishment for not drinking milk. After Sherin’s body was found in a culvert close to their home in Richardson, Wesley Mathews changed his story and told the police that he saw her die in their garage choking on milk. He was arrested for causing felony injury to a child.
The Sushma Swaraj-led ministry has asked Maneka Gandhi’s department to investigate Sherin Mathews’ adoption. She was adopted from the Nalanda Mother Teresa Anatha Seva Ashram in Bihar.
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