Retain custody of Mitali, high court tells NGO

INDORE: The Madhya Pradesh high court has stayed the order of Burhanpur additional judge regarding custody of Mitali, the infant who was recovered from a farm at Burhanpur- who was later adopted by an Omkareshwar based NGO Paramshakti Peeth. “High court has ordered in favour of the NGO and sent back the case to additional judge instructing him to hear the case again by making Paramshakti Peeth a party,” said advocate Manoj Tiwari.
The bench comprising justice K K Lahoti and justice Vimla Jain ordered that till next order, Mitali will continue to stay in Omkareshwar with the NGO run by Shadhavi Ritambhara and sent the case back to the ADG court.
It is to be noted that on October 8, Mitali was found buried in a field at Burhanpur. Farmers alerted the administration about the incident and state education minister Archana Chitnis who reached the spot brought the three-month-old child to MY Hospital in Indore. Later, the infant was shifted to Paramshakti Peeth by the minister herself.
Meanwhile, during this period, a resident of Burhanpur Rajkumar Raoji and three other applied for the adoption of child in Burhanpur court. On November 22, the district court had ordered the custody of the child to Rajkumar Raoji for further care but the NGO refused.
The hospital administration informed him that child has been handed over to NGO. On November 24, Raoji again applied in the district court seeking action on the court’s earlier order about custody of the child. The ADJ Surabhi Mishra has passed an order instructing the SP Khandwa to inquire about the whereabouts of the child.
Confirming the order, general secretary of Paramshakti Peeth, Inder Panchal said that against ADJ’s order the NGO had moved the HC pleading custody of the child. “We have more than hundred girl children and the organization is taking care of them nicely,” Panchal said.