The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has alleged that the uncooperative behaviour of West Bengal government officials created hurdles in their investigations into the Jalpaiguri child trafficking case.

NCPCR said they have summoned Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) of West Bengal. “On 25 July 2017 ADGP should appear in the office of the child rights body with relevant documents and records related to the case,” NCPCR said.

An inter-state baby trafficking racket was busted in Bengal in which CID West Bengal arrested several persons, including a woman named Chandana Chakraborty.

When the news was published in newspapers, NCPCR took cognizance of the issue. Yashwant Jain and Priyank Kanoongo, members of NCPCR, visited West Bengal in March 2017 to investigate the case.

"When we reached Jalpaiguri we did not get any support from any government official in the case. They did not provide us relevant documents," said Kanoongo.

Sources in NCPCR said the commission found that the whole case was related to legal free adoption of the children in which they found government officials negligent.

"For any legal free adoption the final verdict comes from Child Welfare Committee (CWC) but in Jalpaiguri the team of NCPCR found there was no CWC for several months,”said an official from NCPCR.

Instead of CWC, an illegal ad hoc committee was formed for the adoption process which includes several government officials.

Sources said the commission is probing the adoptions done during the period of the ad hoc committee.

Yashwant Jain said when they visited government offices regarding the case they did not find any senior officials.

Kanoongo said instead of providing help government officials were uncooperative with the commission which created hurdles in their investigation in the case.

“We have asked them to provide documents related to the case but the officials had only provided a copy of the FIR of the case,” said an NCPCR official.

Sources said the commission is also probing whether the newborn children were trafficked to different countries.