During raid at children’s shelter on Nov 27, police rescued 71 kids; the doctor running it allegedly bought kids from the poor and sold them for lakhs
Nandadeep Foundation at Kalyan where Dr Ketan Soni ran a children’s shelter
Nearly a week after the Kalyan police arrested a doctor for allegedly running an adoption racket and rescued 71 kids, the cops have reunited 14 babies with their parents. The alleged crime came to light after a couple filed a complaint against Dr Ketan Soni accusing him of taking away their baby for Rs 1 lakh. The police are trying to trace the parents of the other rescued children.
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On November 27, the Bazarpeth police raided the Nandadeep Foundation, which runs a children’s shelter, at Tilak Chowk and rescued 71 children. They also arrested its president Dr Ketan Soni on the charge of running an illegal adoption centre.
Dr Ketan Soni, the accused
As per a complaint filed by one Priya Ahire, she gave birth to a child on November 10 and she and her husband Santosh sold the baby to Dr Soni for Rs 1 lakh. However, after a few days the couple decided to take back their infant. When they approached Dr Soni with the money, he allegedly refused to hand them over the baby.
The Ahire couple alerted child care authorities and filed a complaint against Dr Soni at Ram Nagar police station in Dombivli. While the police then raided the premises of Nandadeep Foundation, Dr Soni could not produce any documents to back the alleged adoptions done through his shelter. The police also said that the foundation did not have the permission to facilitate the adoption of children.
The police sent all the 71 kids at the centre to ‘Balvikas’ facilities at Dombvli and Ulhasnagar.
“The doctor brought kids from poor parents across Maharashtra. He paid them some money promising to take care of the baby at his shelter. It is suspected that he sold the kids to childless couples for lakhs. Whenever the original parents came to meet their kids, he would tell them that the baby had been adopted.”
Investigation officer Pramod Sanap of Bazar Peth police station told mid-day, “We received a complaint against the Nandadeep Foundation and we raided its premises. We found 71 kids and arrested accused Dr Ketan Soni. He bought one kid for Rs 1 lakh and sold the child for a large sum. We are also trying to find out how many more kids he has sold. We traced the families of 14 kids and reunited them.”
Rs 1 lakh
Money Dr Soni allegedly paid to buy a baby last month
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