The Indian government suspended an American adoption agency for “negligence” in its assessment of adoptive parents of 3-year-old Sherin Mathews, who died of “homicidal violence” last year. The young girl, whose body was found in October 2017, chocked to death after her foster father "physically assisted" her with drinking milk.

India's Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said Sunday the decision was taken to suspend the authorized foreign adoption agency, Holt International. She also said the government has written to the Indian Embassy in the United States, the Central Authority, which is the nodal body for adoptions in the U.S., and Holt International, informing them about the decision, according to local reports.

“We have suspended the operations of Holt International because we found it negligent in the assessment of the adoptive parents and also in the post placement assessment of the family,” CEO, CARA (Child Adoption Resource Authority), Lt. Col. Deepak Kumar, said.

A grand jury this month is expected to review charges filed against the girl’s adoptive parents. The adoptive father, Wesley Mathews, was arrested after he changed the story of the day Sherin went missing. Sherin went missing Oct. 7, 2017, and her father said he put the child outside in the middle of the night near a tree about 100 feet from their home as punishment for not drinking milk. When he returned, he found his daughter was missing. However, he later said he "physically assisted" Sherin in drinking her milk after she refused to do so on her own.

"Wesley Mathews advised to Detective ... he had been trying to get the 3-year-old girl to drink her milk in the garage," the arrest warrant stated. "Wesley Mathews said she wouldn't listen to him. Eventually, the 3-year-old girl began to drink the milk. Wesley Mathews then physically assisted the 3-year-old girl in drinking the milk. The 3-year-old girl began to choke. She was coughing and her breathing slowed. Eventually, Wesley Mathews no longer felt a pulse on the child and believed she had died. Wesley Mathews then admitted to removing the body from the home."

Wesley is facing the charge of first-degree felony, which carries up to a life-term in prison, while his adoptive mother, Sini Mathews, was charged with child endangerment or abandonment relating to the death punishable by up to two years in prison. The couple, who adopted Sherin in 2016, had another biological child whom they lost custody of after Sherin went missing.

After Sherin’s death, reports surfaced a pediatrician told Child Protective Services (CPS) about signs of abuse to the girl months before.

CPS Commissioner Hank Whitman said he did not understand how Sherin’s case was not investigated and called the situation “not acceptable.”

“It’s that big disappointment I have,” he told WFAA-TV. “I’m gonna tell you right now, it is my mission, it is my passion that we get better at this.”

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