Missionaries of Charity Nun receives bail in the baby-selling case

Konsolia Bakhla, a nun who worked at Nirmal Hriday shelter, a Ranchi-based Missionaries of Charity Trust has been granted a four-month provision bail by the Jharkhand High Court. She served a prison sentence for allegedly selling a child last year born to an inmate, to a couple in Uttar Pradesh. Bakhla was arrested in July 2018. The court will hear the case after four months. 

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The baby-selling racket case: nun receives bail

The bench of Justice Anand Sen granted provisional bail for four months and asked her to deposit her passport and two sureties of Rs 10,000 each. Bakhla's counsel Chandan Kumari argued that Bakhla should receive bail as there were no direct charges against her. She also argued that Bakhla has been ill and in jail since July 2018. The lawyer reportedly said, that another accused, Anima Indwar, who was arrested along with Bakhla, has already obtained bail. 

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The case

Rupa Verma, the Chairperson of the Ranchi Child Welfare Committee (CWC) made the complaints against two nuns regarding the alleged racket. Arrests were made later on July 5, 2018. In the complaint, she had alleged that a couple from Uttar Pradesh's Sone Bhadra had approached CWC after the shelter took away their child on May 14. After the arrest, a nun had allegedly confessed on camera that she sold babies in exchange for money. According to law enforcement officers, four children were reportedly sold from the shelter home, all of whom have now been found. The Nirmal Hriday shelter had issued a statement last year condemning the acts of the nuns.

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What really went on in the scandal

In July 2018, a couple from Uttar Pradesh approached Ranchi’s Child Welfare Committee (CWC) alleging that a woman called Anima Indwar took away the child she helped them adopt on May 14. The couple said they paid her Rs 1.2 lakh for the child. As per reports, 450 pregnant women were brought to Missionaries of Charity hospitals, but the organisation founded by Mother Teresa could furnish only childbirth records of 170 babies which meant that the records of 280 newborns in India were left untraceable. According to the police, the racket allegedly involved the illegal trade and trafficking of children. However, the police later reportedly clarified that there was no truth to these reports.

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