Kolkata: As the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Kolkata police expands overseas its investigation into an infant trafficking case, the involvement of Sree Krishna nursing home is getting a lot of attention from individuals overseas who were adopted by foreign parents and were apparently born at that nursing home.

“As of now, 20 people, including nine women, have been arrested in this case. We are looking into every aspect,” Rajesh Kumar, additional director-General of Police said.

Investigators suspect the syndicate has been functioning for several decades and has been manipulating young unmarried women to give birth and abandon the child for few thousand rupees, police sources say.

“We have been flooded with emails from overseas from individuals who were adopted from Sree Krishna nursing home. After this racket was busted they all are asking the same question as to whether they were also stolen from their biological parents. It will be very difficult to locate their biological parents because many of them are grown-ups with children of their own,” said an investigating officer.

Even social media was flooded with requests from individuals seeking help to solve the mystery surrounding their births.

“From my adoption papers, I have come to know that I was born in 1983 at Sree Krishna nursing home to a young and unmarried woman who abandoned me after birth. Now looking at the events she may also have been forced to abandon me or worse may have been told I was stillborn. Hope I find my biological mother one day,” said Samuel Jones, (named changed on request) now a doctor by profession in the outskirts of London, who was adopted in 1984.

Similar incidents are being reported by various individuals, including parents, who adopted children over the last few years via Sree Krishna nursing home.

“I adopted this child, who we have named Keith, two years ago from Sree Krishna nursing home,” Lucia Patrick from California, USA, has written to Kolkata police.

“Our objective was to become parents and provide a loving home to an abandoned child. Never to steal a child from his mother,” she continued. WE would like to know about his biological parents and the exact reasons for giving him up for adoption.”

Police say the implications of the case may continue to widen.

“This has understandably become a human tragedy involving thousands of people directly or indirectly affected by the racket. We are now investigating all angles. There are various suspects attached with nursing homes,” a senior CID official said.

Among them is the International Mission for Hope, a global chain of orphanages that has a tie-up with Sree Krishna.

“This incident has shattered my life since, as a teenager, I had given birth to a boy child in 1987 in that very nursing home. I was told he was stillborn and they forced me to leave within hours of my delivery. I was scared, helpless and lonely. As even today being an unmarried mother is a stigma in our society. Looking back after so many years I feel a heart-wrenching pain of having given my son to be sold. However, I cannot go out and say this to anyone as it will destroy the life of my family,” said a professor of chemistry, now a mother of two.