Midwife involved in 16 cases: Cops

Rani was allegedly running the racket from her house in the heart of the city, said senior police officials. She had converted her house into an illegal nursing home, operating without any licence, the police added. Here, she would promise couples a male child and would even administer medicines to childless couples, said the police. Rani, they added, was running an illegal laboratory in her house to prepare medicines to be prescribed to couples.

Various cases registered against Rani at Kotwali and A Division have been clubbed into a single FIR. DNA tests, to establish that children were swapped, need to be carried out, the police said. ‘‘She made lakhs of rupees by swapping a girl child with a boy,’’ said a senior police official.

He added that as new evidences emerge after the DNA tests, Rani, who is out on bail, might be interrogated once again.

In her confessional statement to the police in 2003 (copy available with The Indian Express), Rani had admitted to having exchanged and sold children in at least 16 cases. She admitted that she swapped newborn girls for boys for Ram Tirath, Patti and a local couple, among others.

‘‘I have medicines for bearing male child’’

When contacted, Rani alleged that she was being framed in false cases. She, however, admitted that she gave ‘‘medicines’’ to couples to enable them to bear a male child. ‘‘My experience as midwife goes back over 40 years. I have made certain medicines which can enable them to bear a male child,’’ Rani said adding that several couples had started approaching her for the medicines. ‘‘I never swapped or sold any child,’’ she said. When asked about her statement to the police confirming the sale and exchange of children, Rani said she signed the confession statement under police pressure. ‘‘I was forced to sign the confession statement,’’ she said.