New Delhi, July 10 -- Delhi Police have arrested 10 more accused, including biological parents, traffickers, mediators, buyers and a hospital owner, in connection with an interstate infant trafficking racket that allegedly procured newborns from vulnerable families and sold them to childless couples for lakhs of rupees.
Police also rescued four more children from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, taking the total number of rescued infants and children to nine.
The arrests followed an investigation launched after the Anti-Narcotics Cell of the Central District conducted a decoy operation near RK Ashram Metro Station in
Paharganj on June 5.
During the operation, three accused - Jyoti alias Kamlesh, Shalu and Lalit - were arrested while allegedly attempting to sell a four-to-five-day-old newborn boy to decoy buyers. The infant was rescued safely and the Rs 20,000 paid as token money was recovered.
An FIR was registered at Paharganj Police Station under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Juvenile Justice Act. A Special Investigation Team (SIT), supervised by Additional DCP-II Prashant Chaudhary, was subsequently formed to probe the case.
The investigation uncovered an organised interstate syndicate that allegedly operated on a demand-and-supply model, identifying childless couples willing to pay substantial sums before sourcing infants from financially distressed biological parents.
Among those arrested are an ASHA worker who allegedly acted as a mediator, biological parents from Gujarat, a hospital owner accused of facilitating illegal transfers, buyers from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and Shankar Gamar, identified
as a key supplier.
Police said bank transactions worth several lakhs have been traced and hospital and birth records are being examined. All nine rescued children have been produced before the Child Welfare Committee for care, protection and
rehabilitation. Further investigation is underway.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.