Pastor arrested for trafficking dozens of girls through Christian-run orphanage in India

A pastor has been arrested for allegedly trafficking dozens of young girls through an orphanage run by a Christian organization he founded in 1989.

According to Reuters, Pastor Gideon Jacob was arrested and charged under India's trafficking and juvenile justice laws on Saturday, shortly after he arrived from Germany.

His lawyer had denied the allegations and noted that the pastor had voluntarily appeared before the police and was cooperating with the investigation.

The Moses Ministries home in Tiruchy, which housed 89 children that were said to have been rescued from female infanticide, was run by Germany-based Christian Initiative for India that was founded by Jacob in 1989.

The social welfare department reportedly took over the orphanage in December 2015 during an investigation into the unregistered children's home.

The orphanage had admitted the 89 girls without due procedure or proper records, leading the children to believe for 20 years that they had been abandoned or orphaned.

A local court has ordered the children, who are now aged 18 years and above, to undergo DNA testing to establish their real families, following a wave of claims by people claiming to be their parents.

The test results yielded at least 32 matches in 2016, while a report from The Hindu in March indicated that the parentage of the 61 children is now known. However, none of the girls have been reunited with their families.

"We have been counseling the girls, who have known no other life since they were babies. We have also identified the parents willing to take back their daughters and, following Saturday's arrest, things will move faster and we are hoping to reunite the girls soon," said Tiruchy district head Kuppanna Gounder Rajamani.

Jacob and his wife started the orphanage in 1994 in Usilampatti, where female infanticide was said to be rampant. During that time, the Tamil Nadu government introduced the Cradle Baby Scheme, inviting parents to give away their unwanted babies instead of killing them.

"But people were still killing girls, until 1996. Then the case of a mother jailed for infanticide made the news. People finally realised infanticide was a crime. Killings dropped, but more infants began to be abandoned," a social worker named K. Devendran said.

As many as 125 girls were reportedly brought to Jacob's orphanage over four years. In 1998, the orphanage moved the children to Tiruchi overnight without informing the authorities.

Vikas Christy, who found the girls while working as an intern for Chennai-based NGO CHANGEindia, said that the girls were raised in an "unhygienic, isolated environment, without counsellors, or mentors."

The intern further noted that the girls were "forcibly involved in prayer and groomed for evangelist work."

Rights groups have been complaining that orphanages in India are poorly regulated and not inspected often enough. Many privately-run institutions are reportedly able to operate despite the lack of permit from the government, leaving thousands of children open to abuse.

In Tamil Nadu, as many as 500 children's homes have been shut down between 2011 and 2016 due to mismanagement, a lack of registration and misconduct.