‘Suspicious’ call overheard by neighbour helped bust baby-selling racket in Delhi: Chargesheet reveals

A team from Begumpur police station, led by SHO Ravi Ranjan and comprising sub-inspectors Nimesh and Rashmi, head constables Jagparvesh, Dinesh, Yogender and constable Khushal, reached the spot the same day. Police found a five-day-old baby girl in a cradle in one of the rooms. When questioned, both Priya and Devki could not give information about the newborn’s parents. Priya, Piyush and Devki were arrested. Sangram, however, escaped.

Police had busted a baby-selling racket.

The details of the case were recently revealed in a chargesheet filed before a Rohini court. The court has taken cognizance of the report.

As per the chargesheet, the accused allegedly lured poor families, with prospects of better upbringing, to put their babies up for “adoption”. Videos were then shared with prospective buyers.

Nine accused — including five women and four men — were named in the chargesheet, which has been filed under IPC sections of trafficking, conspiracy and common intention.

Apart from Priya and her family members, two ASHA workers, Simranjeet Kaur and Pooja Rani, and a midwife, Binder Kaur are among the accused. All three were nabbed from Punjab. Other accused — Rajinder, Raman, and his associate Paramjeet — were also arrested from Punjab. Sangram, who is said to be the mastermind and is still on the run, has been declared a proclaimed offender.

The chargesheet states, “The accused persons are part of a baby-selling racket in Delhi and Punjab… Asha workers, Simranjeet Kaur and Pooja Rani used to go to (the) houses of low-income families in several villages of Punjab on the pretext of tending to their medical needs and used to search for newborn babies or mothers who were expecting.”

The chargesheet further stated that both women used to allegedly coax families to give them their babies so that they could hand them over to their acquaintances who were well-off and in a better position to take care of the children.

Binder Kaur, the chargesheet claimed, ran her “clinic” in Punjab. The two ASHA workers allegedly handed over the babies of victims at her “clinic”.

Stated the chargesheet, “In the present case, the baby girl was born on February 15 and was handed over to two accused — Simranjeet and Rajinder — who posed as a wealthy couple working as government servants on the same day at the clinic of Binder Kaur, in (the) presence of the child’s parents who were made to sign blank notary documents.”

Police further said that Binder Kaur, along with the two ASHA workers, then travelled by train and gave the child to Priya Devki, and Sangram who also allegedly posed as a provider of childcare services in Delhi before the racket was busted.

“Priya was earlier involved in a similar case of baby racket in Northeast Delhi and was released on bail a year back,” said police.

Accused Pooja Rani and Raman also used to pose as a couple and adopted babies from families in Punjab, police revealed. “Videos on mobile phones recovered from the accused had clips of newborn babies, which were shared with clients…,” said the chargesheet. The total number of victims targeted by the victims is yet to be ascertained.

The child in the present case, officials said, is being taken care of by an NGO.

DNA test results of the two couples claiming to be her parents are still awaited, police said.