New Delhi, Jun 19 (PTI) Around 30 infants were sold across multiple states over the last one and a half years at rates up to Rs 10 lakh after they were procured for as little as Rs 10,000-Rs 20,000, according to a Delhi Police probe into an inter-state child trafficking racket, officials said on Friday.
Fresh details emerging from the investigation suggested that newborns and infants were taken from economically vulnerable families, including from tribal areas in Rajasthan and Gujarat, and sold them to childless couples in Delhi, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and other states.
Delhi Police has arrested 13 people, including alleged traffickers, mediators, buyers and a hospital owner, and rescued five infants in connection to the trafficking racket.
According to the investigators, the gang would allegedly purchase babies for Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 and then sell them for amounts ranging between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 10 lakh after preparing forged medical and birth records.
Police said the network operated through a chain of suppliers, transporters and middlemen, with the accused using private hospitals and fertility-related contacts to identify prospective buyers.
A senior officer said the probe has so far found evidence suggesting that around 30 children may have been trafficked by the syndicate in the past 18 months.
“The gang had developed an organised system where infants were sourced from vulnerable families and routed through facilitators before being handed over to buyers under fabricated identities,” the officer said.
The racket was unearthed after a decoy operation near R K Ashram Metro Station in Paharganj on June 5, where police caught three persons allegedly trying to sell a newborn who was 4-5 days old.
Subsequent raids led to the arrest of other accused, including a freelance lab technician, a driver, a domestic worker and the owner of a private hospital in outer Delhi, who allegedly played a key role in sheltering trafficked infants and arranging forged paperwork.
Police said one of the major suppliers of the syndicate, identified as Saybabhai Ghamar alias Kalia, was arrested from Gujarat on June 17.
Efforts are now underway to trace the biological parents of the rescued children and identify other infants allegedly sold by the gang.
The Child Welfare Committee has taken custody of the five rescued infants and ordered their care and rehabilitation, police said. PTI SSJ SSJ SKY SKY
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