Barely three months after Indian American girl Sherin Mathews was found dead in a culvert near her house in Texas, the Indian government has suspended all engagements with Holt International, the authorized foreign adoption agency based in the US.
The Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi took the decision after the officials found negligence on the agency’s part. The ministry is of the view that the agency showed indifference in assessing the Indian American adoptive parents of Sherin Mathews.
Mathews’ adoptive father Wesley Mathews had confessed that the girl chocked to death when he tried force feeding her. Mathews’ autopsy report has confirmed that she died because of “homicidal violence.”
“We have suspended the operations of Holt International because we found it negligent in the assessment of the adoptive parents and also in the post-placement assessment of the family,” said Lt. Col. Deepak Kumar, CEO, CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority), The Hindu reported.
The government has informed the Indian Embassy in Washington, the Central Authority, which is the nodal body for adoptions in the US, and Holt International about the decision. The government will decide on canceling the agency’s authorization after receiving detailed reports from Indian Embassy and Central Authority.
In their reports to the Indian ministry, Holt International said Mathews was adjusting well with her parents. But, court statements and inquiries in the US along with the autopsy report prove that she had been tortured by them.
The ministry delayed the decision to suspend the agency due to President Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump’s visit in India last November to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.
Mathews was adopted by Wesley and Sini Mathews from an orphanage in Bihar, India, and was found missing on October 7. After several days of search, police found her body in a culvert, about a mile from her home.
Initially, Wesley Mathews gave a false statement to the police that he punished the girl for not drinking milk by forcing her to stand outside of the house around midnight, and found her missing when he returned. Later, he confessed that the girl chocked to death when he tried force feeding her.
The parents were arrested and put behind bars by the police during the investigation.
Wesley Mathews has been charged with injury to a child, a first-degree felony, and Sini Mathews has been charged with child abandonment or endangerment.
A family court has barred the parents from visiting their three-year-old biological daughter who is now living with her extended family.