Kerala’s Congress-led UDF Government on Wednesday indirectly aired support for the Muslim orphanages which had recently brought hundreds of children in the age group of four to 14 years from Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal without proper documents in the name of social service even as the police described the incident as a clear case of child-trafficking.
An informal meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, in which Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, Industries Minister PK Kunhalikutty of the Muslim league and top officials participated, concluded that the incident could not be termed as human trafficking though there were lapses on the part of the orphanages.
However, speaking to newsmen later, the Chief Minister said that any action would depend on the inquiry currently going on into the incident. “The intention could be good. But the means should be as transparent and clear as the intention,” he said but refused to give direct replies to crucial questions from mediapersons.
Admitting that there had been some failure on the part of the orphanage authorities, Chandy said they had not fulfilled the procedures properly while bringing the children. “I have my own opinions but as Chief Minister I am not airing them when an inquiry is on,” he said while giving no clear answer to the query whether this was a case of human trafficking as the police had said.
Sources said the meeting also concluded that the Home Department, whose police had registered a case for human trafficking against two Muslim orphanages - one at Mukkom, Kozhikode and the other at Vettathur, Malappuram - to which the children were being brought, had done nothing wrong as the police had acted on the basis of reports from the Child Welfare Committee.
It is said that the Government, especially Chandy, did not want to go harsh on the matter because of the pressures being exerted by the Muslim league, second biggest constituent of the ruling front, which is determined to defend the orphanages. The Muslim league on Wednesday attacked the police for filing an FIR saying that the case was one of human trafficking.
The Railway Protection Force at Palakkad had since May 24 detained 589 children of four-to-14 age group as they were being brought to orphanages run by Muslim outfits in Kozhikode and Malappuram. Many of these children did not have the required documents issued by their state governments. Eight persons had been arrested on charge of human trafficking in relation to this.
According to the police, the children between had been brought from other states with the intention of cheating them. They also hold that the orphanages had the intention of putting these children to different kinds of works though the neither the children nor the guardians who had accompanied them to Kerala had aired such suspicions.
“The police FIR is full of lies,” protested Muslim league general secretary ET Muhammad Basheer. “Everybody knows that these children had come to pursue their studies. There were some procedural lapses as the required papers were missing in some cases. But who told the police that they were brought here for saleIJ” Basheer asked.
At the same time, the State BJP said the equivocal stand of the Chief Minister on the issue showed how he was succumbing to the pressures from the Muslim league. State BJP president V Muraleedharan said that his party would oppose this “spinelessness” of the Chief Minister by taking the issue to the people.
Meanwhile, a six-member team of Jharkhand officials headed by its labour Commissioner arrived in Kerala on Wednesday to look into the alleged child-trafficking from that state to Kerala. The Jharkhand Government is of the position that there should be a CBI probe into the matter as it involved two states.
A team of officials from West Bengal headed by the Director of its Social Welfare Department is expected to visit Palakkad on Thursday to examine how children were brought from that state to the Kerala orphanages. As many as 123 children had been brought from West Bengal to an orphanage in Malappuram but only 64 of them had proper documents.