CID summons Roopa, Vijayvargiya in Jalpaiguri child trafficking case

CID arrested several people on charges of selling children through questionable adoption deals

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly, party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and two other leaders were on Thursday summoned by the CID for questioning in connection with the Jalpaiguri child trafficking case.

Reacting on the summons to the leaders, West Bengal BJP alleged that it was a conspiracy of ruling Trinamool Congress to tarnish the party's image.

"A notice has been sent to Kailash Vijayvargiya and Roopa Ganguly and two others in connection with the case," a senior Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officer told PTI.

"Vijayavargiya has been summoned to appear before our officers on July 24 while we will visit Ganguly's residence for questioning on July 29," he said.

The CID, a senior officer said, would question Ganguly over her alleged meeting with arrested former BJP women's wing general secretary Juhi Chowdhury, an accused in the case.

The nursing home is alleged to have served as a cover for an international child trafficking racket.

The agency also summoned BJP leader Samik Bhattacharya to appear before it tomorrow in connection with their probe into the alleged Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana scam that surfaced in the Basirhat area in North 24-Parganas district.

West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh alleged that the summon to Vijayavargiya and Ganguly was a conspiracy hatched by the Trinamool Congress to tarnish the image of the BJP.

"Though the prime accused has already admitted that she never met Ganguly and Vijayavargiya, the CID still issued the summon to them. This is absolutely unnecessary. It is because the TMC has failed to stop the BJP in the state they are using the CID. This is nothing but harassment of our leaders," Ghosh told PTI.

"There is nothing in the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Scam scam. The CID has no evidence against Bhattacharya and by issuing the summon they are trying to harass him also," he said.

The CID had arrested several persons including the head of a child protection agency in Darjeeling and a member of a child welfare committee on charges of selling babies and children through questionable adoption deals.

These arrests were part of a widening probe into the adoption racket at the Bimala Shishu Griho, a children's home in Jalpaiguri town.

Sacked state BJP women's wing leader, Juhi Chowdhury, and the chief adoption officer of the children's home Sonali Mondal, the home's chairperson Chandana Chakraborty and her brother Manas Bhowmik were arrested earlier.

They have been charged with selling about 17 children, aged between one and 14 years, to foreigners by entering into shady adoption deals.

The CID had unearthed the child trafficking racket during raids at homes and nursing homes in Baduria area of North 24 Parganas district, in Behala in the southern fringes of Kolkata and some other parts of south Bengal in November last year.