An adoption fraud has come to light in Bhopal after a Spanish couple handed over a girl child adopted from a Special Adoption Agency int he city to a protection centre in Spain alleging that the girl was almost double the age of what the Bhopal-based SAA had told them at the time of adoption.

The Bhopal-based SAA, Udaan, is now under the scanner of the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) and the Central Adoption Resources Agency (CARA) for the alleged irregularity and fraud.

Udaan operates the children’s shelter home, Kilkaari, located in the Chuna Bhatti area of Bhopal. This is the latest in a spate of controversies plaguing shelter homes across the country. The matter came to light some time ago when the Spanish Agency wrote to the Indian officials in the Union WCD Ministry about the complaint by the Spanish couple.

According to the allegations, the Spanish couple had adopted the girl child from Udaan in January this year. Authorities at Udaan reportedly told the couple that the girl child was seven years old. However, when they reached Spain, the couple was confused, as the girl was too tall for her age and also looked much older.

After some time, the couple also found that the girl’s menstrual cycles had already begun, the complaint said.

Subsequently, they reported the matter to the concerned authorities in Spain and consequent age-verification tests there confirmed that the girl child was actually 13 years old, the complaint further stated.

After that, the couple handed over the child to Spanish authorities at a protection centre in Madrid, as they were not mentally prepared to adopt a 13-year-old.

To conduct an investigation into the complaints, CARA Madhya Pradesh incharge Durgesh Keshwani went to the Kilkaari Centre of Udaan on 24 August along with MP Women and Child Development Department Deputy Director Manglesh Singh, Ramgopal Yadav and other officials. However, the investigating officials said that the authorities at Udaan did not cooperate in their investigation.

Sources said Udaan had faced similar allegations in the past too, when an Italian couple had alleged that not only did Udaan authorities mislead them about the age of their adopted girl but also deliberately did not disclose about her having suffered Tuberculosis (TB) before adoption