The controversial home care centre in Reserve Lines, Madurai, was sealed and officials and members of Child Welfare Committee, Madurai, seized laptops from the centre.

Seven persons, including child traffickers were arrested in connection with the incident. The accused have been identified as R Kalaivani (32) of Pudur, Madurai, Raja (38), Selvi (48), G Kannan (50) of Munichalai, his wife Bhavani (45) M Sagupar Sadiq (38) of Sakkimangalam and Anisrani (35) of the same locality.

While the one-year-old male child Manickam was rescued from Kannan-Bhavani couple, who resided at Ismayilpuram, the other girl child Dhanam was rescued from Sagubar Sadiq at Annai Sathya Nagar, Kalmedu in Madurai, sources said.

Collector Aneesh Sekhar on Thursday said that the guilty would not be spared. Tallakulam police were investigating to trace the exact whereabouts of key accused Sivakumar, director of the centre and Mathersha, administrator, and arrest them.

Further, he said those who want to adopt a child they should approach authorised centres and not go for illegal deals. He said that teams would inspect children home care centres and take necessary action if any irregularity was detected.

K Vijayasaravanan, Chairman, Child Welfare Committee, Madurai, said after sealing the centre, all inmates, including 23 elderly persons, who were mostly sick, were screened at Government Rajaji Hospital.

There are a total of 38 registered home care centres for children in Madurai.

He said Sivakumar, who has now gone into hiding, had been running the ‘Idhayam Trust’ to accommodate abandoned children.

In this case, the 21-year old mother of the rescued male child, would be counselled and the ‘One Stop Centre’ at Balarangapuram, would provide the required support.

In the last one year, seven cases against illegal adoption were booked. Four home care centres were sealed after administrators were charged with misbehaving with the children and cases were booked against them under Pocso Act.