Odisha child sale case: all three couples charged under JJ Act

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Jul 18, 2014 at 11:10 PM Updated On : Jul 18, 2014 at 11:11 PM

Reported by Santosh Jagdev

Bhubaneswar, July 18:

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Commissionerate Police today booked all the three couples – one ‘donor’ and the two others ‘recipients’ – under Section 23 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 in the sensation child sale in the Odisha capital that has rocked the state for days.

Shyam Chandra Rao, the father who sold two of his sons

Those booked were the two recipient couples – Ranjit Choudhuri and his wife Chandini of Samastipur in Bihar, at present staying in Jagatsinghpur district, and Prakash Chandra Panda and his wife Swarnaprava of Mirzapur in Pipili in Puri district – and Shyam Chandra Rao and wife Pramila of Press Colony here, the parents who had sold out two of their children to the former two.

The offence is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or fine, or both, police sources said.
Though the police had rescued Rao’s two sons, a 22-day-old child from the Choudhuri couple and a two-year son from the Pandase, they are yet to trace the third son, who was also allegedly sold by Rao and his wife.

After a day-long search operation in Vishakhapatnam and then in Cuttack, the police teams sent by the Commissionerate police failed to rescue the third son of Rao, informed a senior police officer.

Meanwhile, police have handed over the two-year-old son of Rao, who was rescued from Pipili, to a Missionaries of Charity home in city.

The police had handed over the 22-day old baby son of Rao to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Khordha yesterday.

It may be mentioned here that the matter came to light after Rulina Patra, Counsellor of Ruchika Childline, Bhubaneswar lodged a complaint with the Kharvela Nagar Police station here last Friday requesting police to take necessary steps to rescue all the three children allegedly sold by their parents.

Ms Patra, in her complaint, said Shyama Chandra Rao and his wife Pramila, both daily wagers staying in the Press Colony slum in the city, are the biological parents of seven children. Two of them are dead while three (all sons) have been sold to different persons in the past to earn money.

The complaint was lodged following an order from the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) Khordha.