Jalpaiguri trafficking: Accused taken to Siliguri, dist child protection officer gets showcause notice

A SIX-MEMBER CID team on Tuesday took Chandanachakraborty—primeaccusedinthe childtraffickingcaseunearthedinjalpaiguri— to Siliguri for further interrogation.

Several documents seized in raids at her office on Monday had revealed a network of people who allegedly helped the racket function smoothly, sources said.

Jalpaiguri District Magistrate Rachna Bhagat, meanwhile, issued showcause notice to District Child Protection Officer Sasmita Ghosh. “Seventeen children went missing and it is really hard to believe that the district child protection officer was completely unaware about it,” Bhagat said.

Ghosh said, “I have not received any such letter from the DM. In case I get such a notice I will give them a proper reply.”

CID sleuths had arrested Chakraborty and Sonali Mondal, chief adoption officer of an NGO, on February 18 and 19.

The two were accused of selling 17 children, aged between 1 and 14 years, to a racket at high prices over the past few months under the facade of helping couples adopt babies. They were produced in a district court and remanded to 13 days’ CID custody.

Sources said for many of the children trafficked, birth certificates were issued by altering data such as weight. It is being investigated whether the doctors who had issued these certificates did so knowingly.