Zabeen was an engaging little girl with a bright smile. But the pretty two-year-old who was playing outside a shop in the bustling suburb of Chennai was easy prey for child stealers looking for toddlers to be sent abroad from India for adoption by families in the west.
This week it emerged that Zabeen, who was later adopted by an Australian family, could have been among dozens of children stolen in India and trafficked by unscrupulous adoption agencies over the past 10 to 15 years - now the subject of a major investigation in Australia.
Zabeen's story, exposed by Time magazine, has shocked Australia, where as many as 30 families may have fallen victim to India's child traffickers. If the allegations are substantiated, it is possible that the adoptive parents may be forced to return the children to their birth parents.
'It is an issue that has been exercising many legal minds,' said Russell Grenning of the Queensland Law Society. 'Ultimately, this boils down to a matter of moral choice and it's predicated entirely on what the views and opinions of the birth parents are.
'Generally, our advice to the adopting families would be don't panic, sit tight and wait and see what happens in India.'
Authorities in Canberra have confirmed that, under The Hague Convention, biological mothers would certainly be within their rights to have the adoption revoked.
