Bigg Boss Kannada OTT’s Sonu Srinivas Gowda arrested in ‘adoption’ fiasco

A few weeks ago, social media influencer and Bigg Boss Kannada OTT contestant Sonu Srinivas Gowda began posting images and videos of a minor girl with her, captioned “Muddu Thangi”. The 8-year-old child has become a regular fixture on Sonu’s social media posts, which prompted Child Welfare Committee members to look into the circumstances under which she’s now living with the influencer, only to find out that no formal and legal procedure has been followed in this ‘adoption’.

Following a complaint by the Child Welfare Committee, Sonu was arrested by the Byadarahalli Police earlier today (March 22), where she is expected to give a formal statement about why and how she came to be the ‘guardian’ of a young minor from Raichur. Child rights activists have been stating that Sonu using the child to further her influencer status on social media amounts to child labour and that she should be held accountable for the same. They further allege that she has not sent the minor to school since bringing her to Bengaluru, which is also unlawful.

Sonu had claimed in her vlogs that she had adopted the child, while officials counter that she has not followed official channels for the same and illegally taken charge of the minor. In her vlogs, Sonu had stated that the legal procedure in the adoption process was still on, and yet, the minor has already begun living with her, all of which is not allowed as per the law. The question now is whether she has ‘procured’ the child after a financial arrangement with the biological parents. The influencer has currently been booked under non-bailable offences in this case, as it amounts to kidnapping.

The minor is currently in the care of the Child Welfare Committee, while her parents have been asked to present themselves in Bengaluru before the police. As illegal as Sonu adopting the child is, so is it for the parents to have let her take the minor.