Adding a new dimension to the mysterious incident of trafficking of hundreds of children from other States to orphanages run by Muslim managements in Kerala, the Crime Branch of the State police has told the High Court that the trafficking done by one of the institutions was to ensure smooth flow of foreign funds and grants to it.
The Crime Branch said in its probe progress report that the Muslim Orphanage at Mukkom in Kozhikode district, which was the destination of majority of the 486 children brought from Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal in May last, had done this to avoid division fall in the school associated with the institution which could have led to stoppage or decrease in the funds.
In order to avoid stoppage or decrease in volume of grants and foreign funds due to division fall in the school because of fall in the number of students, the orphanage management had brought the children from other States using forged documents, which included the identity papers of the children, the report said.
The child trafficking incident had come to light on May 24 after the Railway Protection Force detained 486 children from Palakkad Railway Station as they were being brought by train from Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal to the Muslim orphanages in Mukkom and Vettathur in Malappuram, a Muslim-majority district.
Neither the children nor those who were accompanying them were carrying proper documents that were received from the authorities of their States of origin which were required for inter-State transfer of children. The police had seized fake seals and letterheads of Jharkhand authorities from one of the 11 persons arrested in connection with the incident.
The Kerala Police had registered a case for human trafficking over the incident but the State Government argued that there was no element of human trafficking in it but it was a case of failure on part of the orphanages in complying with the formalities. The orphanages also had adopted this position.
The Crime Branch report submitted before the Court indicated that the Muslim Orphanage at Mukkom had not informed the Government about the foreign funds it had been receiving while seeking Government grant, a practice in violation of the rules as per which the size of Government grant would depend on the size of foreign funding.
The Crime Branch report has come at a time when the NIA is reportedly looking into the trafficking of 58 children to the orphanage in Vettathur from Malda, a West Bengal district bordering Bangladesh.The NIA undertook the task on the basis of Intelligence information which included possibility of usage of funds for the transfer of the kids.
The report also said that the Crime Branch had not got any evidence to suggest that the children brought to the Mukkom orphanage had been pushed into child labour or subjected to any forms of torture. Also, there had been no evidence that they had been subjected to sexual exploitation or organ theft, it said.
Meanwhile, seven persons who were in judicial remand in the sub-jail in Palakkad in connection with the child trafficking case had been taken to Jharkhand for production before a court there most probably on Friday. The Crime Branch of the Jharkhand Police, which had registered a case against them, reportedly wants to question them.
A team of officials of the Jharkhand Crime Branch who had visited Kerala recently had hinted at the possibility of initiating a case against the Mukkom orphanage. The Jharkhand Crime Branch, which has already concluded that the incident was indeed one of human trafficking, will be registering a case against the orphanage on the basis of the information these persons provide.