Jammu and Kashmir police has sealed the offices of South Kashmir based non-governmental organization (NGO) ‘Global Welfare Charitable Trust’ and arrested two people over allegations of illegal adoption and sale of Kashmiri children orphaned due to Covid 19.
The crackdown on ‘Global Welfare Charitable Trust’ came shortly after Mission Director; Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) Shabnam Kamili took cognizance of media reports claiming children orphaned by Covid-19 were being sold in Indian markets.
Sub-Division police officer (SDPO), Pampore, Imtiyaz Ahmad said two people were arrested and the office of the NGO was sealed in Pampore on Thursday morning.
He identified the arrested men as Aijaz Ahmad Dar of Pampore and Asrar Amin of Bemina, Srinagar.
“We have also seized some documents from the office before sealing it. It’s not an orphanage but a trust where the accused would collect donations in the name of orphans,” Ahmad said.
Police, he said, have also filed an FIR 153/2021 under section 370 IPC (Buying or disposing of any person as a slave) 120B (criminal conspiracy) 81 juvenile justice act (Sale and procurement of children for any purpose) on Wednesday and started investigations to probe the sensational case.
“No child has been sold so far by the accused and no one was recovered from the trust. However, the accused were about to open an orphanage and were seeking donation for the same,” the SDPO, Pampore said.
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“We are also investigating under which circumstance the video was shot and where it was taken,” he added.
The government also constituted a fact finding committees for Jammu and Kashmir divisions in order to ascertain the number of orphans/Covid orphans and their well-being in all the districts of J&K.
India Today ran a sting operation showing Amin offering children orphaned by coronavirus pandemic in the Valley against a considerable amount of cash. The IT sting operation and the reports in the local media following the expose, set alarm bells ringing in the administration.