Finally young Kerala couple gets relief, as court stays 'adoption' of their child

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 25 (IANS) After almost six months of knocking on all doors in vain, a young Kerala couple on Monday finally got a huge relief when a court here stayed adoption of their baby boy.

Anupama, the 22-year-old mother heaved a sigh of relief after hearing the verdict of the Family Court, which was to have finalised the legal adoption of her baby boy given through the state-run adoption agencies to an Andhra couple, but following a huge media intervention, the Court decided to stay all the further adoption procedures.

The court was informed by the government counsel that the biological mother has appeared and hence the adoption should be stayed.

The court not only stayed the further adoption, but asked the Kerala Police to file their affidavit, and posted the case for detailed hearing on November 1.

Reacting to the court orders, Anupama said she is really happy and expressed thanks to all those who stood with her.

"Am really happy with the court's orders as we now feel we will get our child back. If this sort of support had come early, their child would have been with them long back itself," said Anupama.

Anupama, hailing from the state capital city, has been running from pillar to post to get back her child which, she claimed, was snatched by her parents last October, immediately after she gave birth at a hospital here.

Daughter of a local CPI-M leader Jayachandran, Anupama fell in love with the youth wing leader of the party -- Ajith, a Dalit Christian, who was already married.

After Ajith got officially divorced early this year, the two have been living together.

The first person in the CPI-M that Anupama complained to, was politburo member Brinda Karat and despite her efforts to take this case up with top state leaders, nothing happened.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, CPI-M acting secretary A. Vijayaraghavan, police and the few state-run agencies which deal with adoption and children were all approached by Anupama and her husband, but they did not get any help from any quarters and finally last week, they came before the media and since then things went on the fast track.

Even though she is the granddaughter of one of the top most yesteryear CPI-M leaders in the state capital city, all the influence was used by her parents to see that she did not get custody of the child. Till the media came in, her parents managed to get all the authorities to close their eyes to her pleas.

Vijayan's party, CPI-M, came under massive attack from all quarters, and the opposition Congress and the BJP slammed their 'double standards of speaking of women equality and child rights'.

Anupama is a Students Federation of India activist, while her husband is in the youth wing of the CPI-M.

With the court also stepping in, her parents and four others have all sought anticipatory bail.