How An Influential Doctor Couple From Assam Were Found To Be Abusing Their Adopted Children
How did a well-known doctor couple from Assam who hobnob with the who's who of Guwahati city - from Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to renowned actor Adil Hussain - fall from grace overnight??
Psychiatrist Sangeeta Datta and her husband Waliul Islam, a surgeon, have been under police custody since May 5 for allegedly keeping adopted twin siblings captive in their home and abusing them for several months.?
How the abuse came to light?
The child abuse case came to light when child rights activist Miguel Das Queah posted about it on social media.?
He posted on May 5: "From a long time, I had received complaints about this horrid doctor couple who regularly tied their little daughter (who is supposedly adopted) on their terrace in the blaring summer heat. This little 5 year old girl child also has bruise marks all over their body. "?
While this had been happening for some time, the witnesses who informed Das were unwilling to file a formal complaint, as they knew of the doctor couple's influence.?
The situation was brought to line publicly only when one of the witnesses dared to file the complaint.?
The Guwahati Commissioner of Police (CP), Diganta Barah, said, "The minor girl was kept captive on the fourth floor of Roma Enclave, the residence of the doctor couple. The 3-year-old girl had injury and burn marks on her private parts and bruises on several parts of her body. During the medical examination, it was also found that her private parts were burned with cigarettes."?
Police have said that the abuse has been recorded in CCTVs at their home.
The couple were formally charged under the POCSO Act, and the case is ongoing under the same. Datta continues to claim that they are innocent and there has been a conspiracy to defame them.
Murky circumstances of adoption
Later, Datta confessed before the police that the little girl was adopted along with a boy after a failed surrogacy plan. She said that the children had been 'handed over to her by a woman'.?
This case brought to light not only the child abuse but the murky circumstances under which adoption often takes place.?
The 'Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Bill (POCSO), 2011, was passed in 2012 by the Parliament.?
This act aims to protect children from offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography and provide for establishment of Special Courts for trial of such violations and matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.?
Protection of children by the state is guaranteed to Indian citizens by an expansive reading of Article 21 of the Constitution of India and also mandated given India's status as a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.?
Before the implementation of the POCSO Act, the Goa Children's Act 2003 was the only specific piece of child abuse legislation.
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