Maharashtra: Day after mother held for selling baby, child-trafficking racket mastermind held, involved in selling 4 more infants

On Monday, the Matunga-based woman and eight others were arrested for allegedly selling her child for Rs 1 lakh to secure bail for her jailed husband. The incident came to light after the woman’s mother-in-law filed a police complaint with the help of an NGO.

According to police, the woman traveled to Vadodara along with three other accused—Yogesh Bhoir, Roshni Sontu Ghosh, and Sandhya Arjun Rajput—to meet Madina, alias Munni Imam Chavan, over a month ago. From there, they went to Karnataka, where they met Baby Tamboli, whose husband, identified as Abdulkarim Dastagir Nadaf, was the mastermind behind racket.

A senior police officer from Mumbai said, “On Tuesday, we took Nadaf into custody and arrested him. During his interrogation, he told us that he was involved in the illegal trade of four other infants—two male and two female—aged between one-and-a-half and two months. They were sold for amounts ranging from Rs 3.8 lakh to Rs 2.3 lakh.”

The police added that the four other infants were from Aurangabad, Pune and Gujarat, and they will approach the respective local police to register an offense in the case.

‘5-yr waiting list forced couple to participate’

The Karnataka-based couple, who bought the girl from the Matunga woman began looking to buy an infant after an adoption agency informed them that their turn would only come after five years, police said.

“The couple are farmers based in Karnataka and have been married for about a decade. The woman had a miscarriage about three years ago, and since then, she has been unable to conceive, which caused her to fall into depression,” said a police officer.

The couple then approached an adoption agency, but as the waiting period was too long, they reached out to a hospital nurse named Veena Tandel. According to police, Veena, whose husband was friend of the Karnataka man, started looking for an infant and eventually came into contact with Nadaf.

The police said that the couple, who have been booked in the case, were brought to Mumbai and detained. The baby was also recovered and is currently in the custody of an NGO. “While we are considering letting the couple go after serving a notice under the provisions of the law, Veena will be arrested in the case,” said an officer.

The investigators have learnt that the couple bought the baby for Rs 3 lakh of which Rs 1 lakh was handed over to the mother while the rest was distributed among the arrested accused.

Doctor’s role

Nadaf, police said, has claimed that he worked as a driver in Pune until three years ago, when he left the job after an accident.

“He claims that he came in contact with a Karnataka-based doctor, who started trading infants through him. Since then, he has been a part of the racket,” said an investigator. The police suspect that a large number of infants have been traded by the two. They plan to take the doctor into custody to investigate further.