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Kerala adoption row: Parents win 1-year-old baby back after more than a year

Anupama Chandran got separated from her child three days after delivery in October 2020

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A family court in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala on Wednesday directed the handing over of a child to its biological parents, former Kerala Students’ Federation of India leader Anupama S. Chandran and her partner Ajith Kumar.

Later, officials of the Child Welfare Committee gave the child to them. A DNA test conducted earlier on Anupama, Ajith and the child confirmed they were the biological parents of the infant.

After meeting her child, Chandran was exuberant. “It is a big relief for me,” she told the media. “I have been waiting for this moment for a year.”

Veena George, Kerala’s health and family welfare minister, said the government had stood by Chandran.

Chandran got separated from her child three days after delivery in October 2020 as her parents were opposed to her bringing it up with Kumar, as he had not taken legal divorce from his first wife. The child was given in adoption to a couple in Andhra Pradesh, without Chandran’s consent.

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The foster parents in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, a teacher couple, were upset. “We cannot bear this agony,” one of them told the media. “This is really painful. We should get some solace. Give us another child.” They blamed the authorities in Kerala for not briefing them about the child’s custody. They went to Kerala in August to take the child, but later realised that the actual mother had been claiming the infant much earlier.

“Why did these officials hide the truth from us?” asked the father. “Why did they give us so much agony? They could have told us of the real facts and given us another child.”

• India