Another official arrested in Jalpaiguri child trafficking case

Jalpaiguri District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) Sasmita Ghosh was arrested on Monday by the CID for her alleged involvement in the child trafficking racket in the district, taking the tally of total arrests to seven in the sensational case, an official said.

Ghosh is the wife of ex-Darjeeling DCPO Mrinal Ghosh, who was also arrested along with a member of Darjeeling Child Welfare Committee named Debasish Chanda last Friday in connection with the same case.

"Sasmita and her husband was directly involved with the trafficking racket and helped the adoption homes to run the illegal business against a handsome commission. She would be produced to the Jalpaiguri court on Tuesday. We would seek to get her in CID custody," said a senior CID official.

Ghosh was removed from the post of DCPO on Sunday by the Jalpaiguri District Magistrate Rachna Bhagat after her name came up in the trafficking case.

The CID sleuths earlier arrested four more people including BJP women wing leader Juhi Chowdhury, Chandana Chakraborty, the chairperson of the accused child adoption centre, Chief Adoption Officer Sonali Mondal and Chakraborty's aide Manas Bhowmik in the last two weeks for selling at least 17 children through shady adoption deals.

--IANS

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