THE National Registration Department (NRD) has detained two individuals including a private doctor suspected of being involved in a syndicate falsifying the information of more than 200 births since 2009.

Its director-general Ruslin Jusoh said the doctor was detained here while the other suspect, who was an agent active in carrying out the scheme in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Penang, was detained at his house in Malacca.

“With the arrests of the two men, NRD has been able to solve some of the birth information falsifying cases of the syndicate, which were detected since 2009 at a private maternity clinic in Petaling Jaya,” he told a media conference in Putrajaya today.

He said the modus operandi of the syndicate was to offer babies for adoption to childless couples and registering them as their biological children, while the doctor involved signed and confirmed the birth registration form, JPN.LM01.

“The syndicate will enter the details of baby and the married couple as if the baby was delivered by the wife (as her biological baby), and the agent and the couple will handle the registration of the child at NRD using false documents,” he said.

According to Ruslin, most babies, who were registered as such, are now between 12 and 16, and their deliveries to the couples were arranged by the syndicate.

He said each transaction costs between RM8,000 and RM20,000.

“The birth records of the babies have been blacklisted. I urge their parents to meet us and cooperate with us to complete investigations as NRD will detect and track them down,” he said.

As a further action, Ruslin said all existing information in the affected birth registration would be updated and corrected, namely, by disposing the information of the parents involved while the citizenship status of the child would become “not determined” as the real parents were not known.

“The parents involved are allowed to make an application for adoption if they want to continue looking after the children through the Social Welfare Department but subject to the correct legal procedure,” he said, adding that NRD would cooperate with the welfare department and the Health Ministry in a follow-up to the cases.

Ruslin said NRD would also conduct an internal investigation to determine if any of its staff were involved in the syndicate.

He also said the clinics or hospitals involved would also be contacted to obtain confirmation on births.

In the meantime, he reminded childless couples to seek adopted children through the legitimate process and not use middlemen to deal with the NRD. – Bernama, April 20, 2021.