Kerala Adoption Row: Anupama gets custody of her baby on court's order

Thiruvananthapuram: After an order of family court in Thiruvanathapuram on Wednesday afternoon, Anupama S Chandran finally held her baby boy in her arms soon after she stepped out of a court complex along with her partner Ajith.

The 22 year old mother, whose three-day-old boy was forcibly removed by her parents in October last year, got custody of the baby after one year of waiting and weeks long tough legal battle, protests and controversies.

On Wednesday, the family court ordered that the child be handed over to his biological parents. The child had been under the care and protection of his adoptive parents in Andhra Pradesh till last Sunday.

The development comes a day after the DNA tests on the baby, Anupama and Ajith at the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) established the couple as the parents of the child.

Emerging from the court complex, the family travelled by car to the site of Anupama's protest these last few days, in front of the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare (KSCCW) headquarters .

"I got my child. He is in the car. I am very happy now. I wish to spend time with my child," she told media.

When the court began its proceedings at 2.30 pm, the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) submitted before it, the results of the DNA test. During the one-and-a-half hour long proceedings held in the chamber of the judge, the baby, who was in the custody of CWC at the Nirmala Sishu Bhavan, was produced before the court following its directive.

The court then directed that the baby be medically examined and after completing all legal formalities, ordered the CWC to hand over the child to his mother. The court had posted the matter for November 30, but it preponed the hearing to Wednesday after the government pleader appealed to hand over the baby to its parents at the earliest.

Anupama (22) and her partner Ajith have been protesting in front of the KSCCW office at Thycaud here for some days, demanding to get their child back.

The woman's allegation that her child was forcibly taken away from her by her father, a local CPI(M) leader, triggered a political controversy following which the government had ordered a departmental probe into the incident.

Anupama had accused her parents of forcibly taking away her new-born child from her soon after its birth a year ago and alleged that though she had complained about it to police several times since April, but they were reluctant to register a case against her family members.

However, the Peroorkkada police said a case was registered against six people- her parents, sister, sister's husband and two of his father's friends - and that the delay occurred as they were awaiting legal opinion.

Meanwhile, the opposition Congress accused Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of "conspiring" to facilitate the "trafficking" of the child of former SFI leader Anupama Chandran to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh in the name of adoption, without her consent.

Attacking the CPI(M)-led government and the party leadership over the issue, the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, V D Satheesan alleged that the Chief Minister was using silence as his weapon now-a-days to avoid commenting on controversial issues, especially those involving him.

Listing out various 'flaws' committed by the KSCCW and CWC, the Congress leader also alleged that the agencies had earlier conducted the DNA test of another baby and even mentioned wrong gender in the records to mislead the woman and cover up the issue.