Child trafficking: Denied custody, cops yet to interrogate accused to locate infant’s parents

A screenshot of the WhatsApp chat between the accused and an undercover agent

A month on, the Mumbai Crime Branch has not been to find the parents of the infant girl who was rescued from an alleged racketeer involved in child trafficking. This is because of the court's denial of main accused Julia Fernandes's custody to the police.

The Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU) of the Mumbai Crime Branch's Social Service division arrested Fernandes and her accomplice Shabana Shaikh on July 31 during an undercover operation.

On August 1, the police presented them at a lower court in Sewri along with their medical test reports and sought their custody. However, the court sent the duo in judicial remand after Fernandes showed an abrasion on her face when asked if she had any complaints against the police. The court ordered another medical examination. The report was submitted a few days later.

Julia Fernandes, main accused (right); accomplice Shabana Shaikh

Police said they tried to explain to the court that Fernandes might have sustained the minor abrasion on her face during the struggle when she refused to hand over the baby to the police during the raid, and when she tried to dispose of her phone. However, in its order, the court said there was some substance in her allegation and that it would not be proper to grant police custody.

The police had moved a review petition in the Sessions court, which upheld the lower court's order.

Last month, Mahatma Phule Chowk police in Thane and the Mumbai Crime Branch's unit 9 took Fernandes's custody for a few days in connection with their cases registered in 2021 and 2020, respectively. Fernandes, who faces a total of five cases of child trafficking, later secured bail in the cases involving the infant but is in judicial custody in a previous case.

The SJPU tried to interrogate Fernandes while she was in Crime Branch's unit 9 custody but got nothing.

"We are making all efforts to find the infant's parents. We have tried everything to get her custody," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Enforcement) Raju Bhujbal.

Another officer said, "If we had been granted her custody, there was a high chance that we would have found the child's parents. As of now, we don't know whether she was sold to the duo or the parents gave her up for adoption in unable to take care of the child, or she was kidnapped."

In the absence of Fernandes's custody, the police are relying on technical evidence, which includes call data record of the accused, but have not been successful so far. Police said they have not found anything from Shaikh, who claims that the child's parents are from Delhi. Shaikh, who has been named in only this case, is out on bail. Police said Fernandes had admitted the child, under the name Anannya, at Galaxy hospital in Thane briefly for jaundice.

The child, who is now less than two-months-old, is at Bal Asha Trust, an adoption organisation run by the state government, in Mahalaxmi and doing well, said police.