Probe ordered into missing of 3yr-old girl from govt-run shelter in Agartala

Agartala: The Tripura govt on Sunday ordered an inquiry into the report of the missing of a three-year-old girl from a govt-run home in Agartala.

The girl's mother lodged an FIR in Sepahijala on Saturday, accusing the welfare officer of Narsingarh Founding Home in Agartala of selling her daughter.

The police said an investigation was started immediately after the complaint was registered, with an initial attempt on rescuing the girl. The mother complained that her daughter was trafficked from the home after she denied the proposal of adoption to a couple who was brought to her by an official of the home.

According to an FIR, around nine months ago, the mother — whose husband had gone missing — sought help from the Sepahijala District Child Welfare Committee to shelter her three children in the govt home. Accordingly, two of them were placed at the state-run Narsingarh Founding Home. The mother frequently visited them, often carrying her youngest child in her arms.

Nivedita Dutta, a lawyer and also the child welfare officer at the Narsingarh founding home, allegedly pressured the mother to give her three-year-old up for adoption.

The mother refused, instead requesting Dutta to help her secure shelter for her third child officially into the home. However, before last year's Durga Puja, Dutta reportedly contacted the mother and said she would help place the child in the home. The mother had then left her child in the facility.

The FIR names Arindam Deb, an assistant public prosecutor in Agartala and husband of Nivedita Dutta, accusing him of being involved in notarising the illegal handover of the child through a notary office in Agartala. The mother was coerced into signing documents and was offered Rs 10,000, which she refused.

"I thought I was handing my child over to the care of the govt, not selling her," the mother told the police. Two days ago, the woman visited the Narsingarh Founding Home, hoping to reunite with her children and found her third daughter was untraceable. "Immediately she informed the Sepahijala District Child Welfare Committee, but they were also unable to trace the child. Then she approached the police," she said.