The Jharkhand Police on Sunday found the fourth baby allegedly sold by an employee and a nun of a Ranchi-based organisation run by the Missionaries of Charity, The Times of India reported. The charity organisation, Nirmal Hriday, was set up by Mother Teresa in 1950.
“This was the last of the four children which the staff [member] of Nirmal Hriday, Anima Indwar, confessed to selling,” Ranchi Senior Superintendent of Police Ashish Gupta said.
Gupta added that the couple that bought the baby belong to Chhatarpur area of Palamu district and lived in Chutia area of Ranchi, from where the baby was found. The child was sold for Rs 50,000, the police said.
On Saturday, the Jharkhand Police had released a video in which the accused nun, Sister Konsalia, purportedly confessed to the crime. She is heard saying that three babies had been sold but the fourth infant was put up for adoption for free.
Child Welfare Committee member Srikant Kumar said all the four children have been handed over to their adoptive parents for two months on the condition that the children will be produced before CWC every week. “The decision has been taken considering the welfare of the children.”
The Jharkhand Police arrested Indwar and Konsalia on July 4 and 5 based on a complaint filed by Child Welfare Committee’s Ranchi unit chairperson, Rupa Verma.
The Roman Catholic church said it condemned the “whole incident”, but claimed that the police were attempting to malign its image. “There is a deliberate attempt being made to thwart and undo all good things done by us [missionaries and churches] over decades in serving mankind,” Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, the general secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, told reporters on Thursday.
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