West Bengal child trafficking case: Jalpaiguri CDPO Sasmita Ghosh held in adoption racket

Jalpaiguri: The CID today arrested Jalpaiguri District Child Protection Officer Sasmita Ghosh in the trafficking case in which babies and children were sold, some to foreigners, through questionable adoption deals. Including her a total seven persons have been booked in the case. The Siliguri Police Commissionerate said Ghosh is being interrogated by the CID at Pintal village where the rest of those arrested and produced in court in connection with the case are being questioned. Her arrest is part of a widening probe into the adoption racket at Bimala Shishu Griho, a children’s home in the town. The DCPO had been suspended yesterday as she failed to give satisfactory reply to the show cause notice issued to her in the case. Her husband Mrinal Ghosh, the Darjeeling DCPO, had also been arrested in connection with the case on Friday night. The others arrested in this case are Debasish Chandra, a member of the district Child Welfare Committee, BJP women’s wing leader Juhi Chowdhury, Chief Adoption Officer of an NGO Sonali Mondal, its chairperson Chandana Chakraborty and her brother Manas Bhowmik. Sonali, Chandana and Manas were charged with selling about 17 children, aged between one and 14 years, to foreigners by entering into shady adoption deals. The CID had unearthed the child trafficking racket during raids at homes and nursing homes in Baduria area of North 24 Parganas district, in Behala in the southern fringes of Kolkata and some other parts of south Bengal in November last year.