Employees of a charity set up by the late Catholic saint, Mother Teresa, are being investigated over allegations of baby trafficking.
One of the women working at the Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in the Indian state of Jharkhand has been arrested for allegedly selling a baby that was just 14 days old.
Meanwhile, two other female employees from the charity have also been detained and are being questioned. Authorities made the arrests after the state’s Child Welfare Committee registered a complaint.
The multiple arrests took place from July 3 to 4 and followed the couple’s complaint that the charity worker had taken back the baby, a boy, and kept the couple’s money.
The arrested women could face up to five years in prison for selling a baby from the institution, AFP reported. The charity also cares for unwed pregnant women and mothers in distress.
Neither the charity, nor the Child Welfare Committee, responded to a request for comment.
“There was no question of selling any child as the Missionaries of Charity had stopped giving children for adoption three years ago,” charity Spokeswoman Sunita Kumar said in a statement. Kumar claims that the charity had never taken money from parents while arranging adoptions in the past.
Officer Kumar said they found 100,000 rupees ($1,470) on the two arrested employees, and that police have shifted 12 pregnant women from the charity to a government-run home for care.