Racket selling infants to childless couples busted, four including 3 women nabbed

DCP (Outer) Jimmy Chiram said that on April 2, around 6pm, police received information regarding a child trafficking gang seen near Sonia Hospital at Nangloi Police Station.

A raid was carried out by a team of five police officers under the supervision of SHO, Nangloi, Inspector Rajesh Kumar, and a man and three women were arrested. The DCP said one of the women was carrying a baby girl, whom the gang was planning to take to an undisclosed location. The infant who has been rescued is around 15 to 20 days old.

A case under the Juvenile Justice Act and IPC sections pertaining to trafficking of persons was lodged.

Said an officer, “The infant was traced back to Fazilka in Punjab; she was to be sold for a hefty sum before officers intervened. The parents of the rescued baby girl were informed. The accused disclosed that they lure poor families, take away their children and sell them further to others. They had got this baby girl from Punjab and tried to sell her in UP but could not find any ‘customer’… they were trying to sell the child in Delhi but got caught.”

Police said that during further investigation, information of another child, a baby girl aged around 3 months, being sold in Chandigarh for around Rs. 2.5 lakh was disclosed. “Accordingly, a team was alerted and in the intervening night of April 9 and 10, they rescued the child from a couple in Chandigarh,” added the DCP.

A senior officer said that the gang had been operating for almost a year now. They used to get tip-offs from their informers about newborn babies born in poor families in Punjab and UP, after which they would lure them in exchange of money, the officer added. They mostly went for very young children, not more than 3 months old, said police.

The officer said the accused persons used to travel through train in which one of the women would carry the child in her lap, pretending that they were her own should anyone enquire.