Children born into separate Hindu, Muslim families switched at birth

ASSAM (Dunya News) - Two children who were born into separate Hindu and Muslim families were switched at birth in India’s Assam state.

On March 11, 2015, Shahabuddin Ahmed and Salma were blessed with a baby boy at the Mangaldai Civil Hospital in March 2015.

On the same day, a Hindu couple - Anil and Shewali Boro – also became parents of a boy just five minutes apart. Interestingly, both the babies weighed 6.6lb.

Doubts occurred when Salma told her husband after a week of birth that the boy had no resemblance with any of the family member as his facial features are entirely different.

Shahabuddin Ahmed and Salma with Jonait. --- Photo Courtesy: BBC

The family of three then underwent a DNA test whose results confirmed the suspicion showing no genetic match between Shahabuddin Ahmed, his wife and legal son, Jonait.

"When I saw his face, I had doubts. I remembered the face of the other woman in the labour room and he resembled her. I could make out from his eyes. He’s got small eyes, no-one in my family has eyes like that,” Salma said as quoted by The Independent.

However; when Ahmed informed the hospital staff of his wife’s concerns, an emoployee an employee dismissed it out of hand and suggested Salma seeks psychiatric help.

Following this, Ahmed filed a right to information petition – India’s equivalent to a freedom of information request – asking the hospital for details of all the babies born around 7am the same day Jonait was born.

The match happened with a “tribal lady” who had also given birth to a boy.

Anil and Shewali Boro --- Photo Courtesy: BBC

Ahmed and Salma then wrote a letter to Anil and Shewali Boro and went to meet them and their child, Riyan Chandra, in a village 19 miles away.

Shewali told the BBC the first time she saw Jonait, she “felt very sad and cried” after noticing the resemblance to her husband.

“We are Bodo tribals, we are not like the other Assamese or Muslim people. Our eyes slant upwards, our cheeks and hands are plumper. We are different. We have Mongolian features,” she said.

Salma wanted to swap the child but Anil Boro’s mother refused. A forensic test was conducted later which proved that the baby’s were switched at birth.

Salma and Jonait --- Photo Courtesy: BBC

Both the couples then moved to court but the children resisted the swap.

"The magistrate told us that if we wanted to swap the babies we could do it, but we said we won’t do it. Because we’ve raised them for the past three years, we can’t just let them go," said Salma.

"Also, Jonait was crying. He was in my brother-in-law’s lap, he held him tightly, wrapped his arms around his neck and refused to leave," she added.

Shewali Boro also faced the same situation as Riyan was not ready to leave her.

The couples have now decided that they will keep the children and will not move on with the swap in the best interest of the toddlers. The families say that the decision will be taken by the children themselves when they grow older.