The Supreme Court on Friday refused a plea to order a CBI investigation into the circumstances leading to the rescue of 455 children illegally transported to Kerala from Bihar and Jharkhand in May this year.
Observing that a prosecution is already on, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu refused to entertain amicus curiae Aparna Bhat’s request for a comprehensive investigation.
These children, aged between 4 and 14, were being brought from Bihar and Jharkhand to some orphanages in Kerala. They were rescued by the railway police and district officials in Palakkad on May 24, 2014. All the children were found to be travelling without tickets or travelling documents.
An affidavit filed by the State government before the Supreme Court had informed that 156 of these children — 88 boys and 68 girls — were handed over to the Mukkam Muslim Orphanage in Kozhikode district after Child Welfare Committee proceedings held there. The affidavit said they were found to possess identity cards and were studying in an educational institution of the orphanage.
During the hearing, Chief Justice Dattu told Ms. Bhat how Solicitor-General Ranjit Kumar had opened a new angle in the Palakkad incident during a court hearing before the Bench on Thursday.
Mr. Kumar, while representing Bihar, in a PIL petition filed by Nobel Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi’s child rights group, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, had said that not all the children rescued at Palakkad were abducted. Some were voluntarily sent by their parents to Kerala in the hope of a better education.
“You are saying they are trafficked, their parents are saying they have been sent for studies,” the CJI said. The Bench tagged Ms. Bhat’s petition with the Bachpan Bachao Andolan case, while posting it for hearing on November 13.
