KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Thursday handed over rights activist Sarim Burney to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for two days in a case pertaining to “child trafficking by way of illegal adoption” on the complaint of US authorities.

The investigation officer (IO) of the FIA, Bilal Ahmed, produced Mr Burney before Judicial Magistrate (East) Khaliq ul Zaman, seeking his physical remand.

The IO informed the court that the suspect needed to be interrogated “thoroughly” and that it was necessary to recover “crucial records pertaining to the adoption/guardianship of children” who had been adopted by families abroad.

The IO further stated that the bank accounts of Mr Burney and his trust needed to be scrutinised.

FIR says suspects concealed facts regarding adoption of babies

Additionally, he pleaded that remaining suspects needed to be traced, examined, and arrested.

On the other hand, Mr Burney’s legal team, including advocates Aamir Warraich, Aijaz Hussain, and Nawaz Dahri, requested judicial custody for their client, stating that their client was ready to provide all necessary documents and that his office was available to cooperate with the IO.

Additionally, Advocate Warraich also asked the court to dismiss the case under Section 63 of the criminal procedure code. The legal team also submitted a bail application, which is set to be heard on Saturday.

Earlier in March, the FIA received a letter ‘illegal adoption by NGO’ from the US Department of State Diplomatic Security Service.

The letter alleged that the trust was “misleading courts and changing children’s names”.

The letter stated: “It appears in the case of [three baby girls] were relinquished by biological parents with a consent to hand over any interested family for an adoption, whereas court proceedings show that all three children were abandoned at the gate of Sarim Burney Welfare Trust Int., despite of all efforts biological parents were not traced, or anyone claimed for the children.”

The US department referred the matter to the FIA for further investigation.

Responding to the allegations, Mr Burney told the court: “I was the one who informed the US authorities that the child was abandoned. However, if there is an issue with the child being mentioned as an orphan in a document, it might have been a typo error made by a member of our team or an advocate.”

After hearing the IO and the defence counsels, the court remanded Mr Burney in physical custody for two days, observing that the IO’s submission appeared “genuine and convincing”.

According to the FIR, an inquiry concluded that Sarim Burney and his associates Basalat Ali Khan, Humaira Naz, and others colluded to provide false information, make misdeclarations, and conceal facts before the Honorable Family Courts District East Karachi under the guise of illegal adoption/guardianship of three baby girls using fraudulent documents.

It stated that the statement by the suspects that “the three baby girls in question were orphans and found from outside the gate of M/s Sarim Burney Trust and it tried level best to find their parents but no person came forward for claiming them” was contrary to the facts, adding that these baby girls in question dropped by their biological parents to the trust was also contrary to the facts.

The case was registered against Mr Burney, Basalat Ali, Humaira Naz under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly, inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (Using as genuine a forged document), 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Sections 3 (trafficking in persons), 4 (aggravating circumstances) and 5 (abetment and criminal conspiracy) of the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2018.

It also stated that the role of others will be determined after the investigation.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2024