New Delhi: The Delhi Police reunited a six-month-old boy, who was abducted from the Sarai Kale Khan bus terminal, with his relieved parents, following a 48-hour rescue operation on 23 August. Not only was the infant safely recovered, but the police also uncovered a major child trafficking racket behind his abduction, subsequently arresting 10 suspects believed to be operating in the network.
As the investigation widened, five more kidnapped children were recovered from different states, revealing the scale of operations of the child trafficking racket. Parents now await the return of these kids.
A Special Investigation Team, comprising officers from southeast Delhi, unravelled the case of the six-month-old’s kidnapping, kicking off the ongoing police probe into the racket.
The racket allegedly targeted vulnerable families at bus stops and railway stations, abducting infants and toddlers. The children were then, allegedly, sold through a chain of middlewomen, families, and even a doctor.
Among those rescued are babies as young as 10 days old.
With more leads emerging from their interrogations of the 10 arrested suspects, police expect further arrests and recoveries in the days ahead.
The ordeal began on the night of 22 August. Suresh, a brickmaker from Uttar Pradesh, was travelling with his wife and four children when they stopped at ISBT Sarai Kale Khan en route to Rajasthan. Exhausted from the journey, the family fell asleep on the platform.
Around 11 pm, Suresh woke up to find his youngest child missing. Panicked, he searched the platform end to end, but there was no trace of the baby. It slowly dawned on him that the child had been taken.
After hours of frantic searching, the family approached the Sunlight Colony police station the following morning. An FIR was promptly registered against unidentified persons in connection with the kidnapping.
The operation
The first 24 hours are the most crucial in cases of missing children—every hour reduces the chances of a successful recovery, as reiterated in both police manuals and court observations.
The Delhi Police wasted no time. The SIT was formed under Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mihir Sakaria, with Additional DCP (southeast) Aishwarya Sharma in charge of the supervision of the probe.
Reviewing CCTV footage from the bus terminal, investigators spotted a group of men loitering near the family. One man was seen picking up the child and walking out of the station. After that, the group quickly dispersed, vanishing without a trace.
Through local inquiries and surveillance, police soon identified one of the men. Their breakthrough came quickly—Veerbhan, a native of Fatehabad, Agra, was the first suspect taken into custody.
During interrogation, Veerbhan allegedly confessed that he and his father-in-law, Kalicharan, kidnapped the child on instructions from another man, Rambaran, who wanted to sell the infant. The boy was subsequently taken to K.K. Hospital, a private facility in Agra owned by one Dr Kamlesh Kumar.
What followed was a series of coordinated raids and dramatic arrests. To avoid tipping off the doctor, the police devised a plan to approach the hospital in disguise.
Posing as patients, officers entered the clinic and apprehended Dr Kumar. His questioning led to another name, Sundar, who had allegedly purchased the baby from the doctor.
Sundar proved elusive, leading officers on a 50-km chase before he was finally intercepted at the UP-Rajasthan border. His arrest paved the way for the child’s recovery.
He led police to a couple in Agra, the Sharmas, who had the baby in their custody. The child was safely recovered from the Sharma household.
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More children rescued
The breakthrough arrests revealed just how far-reaching the trafficking network was. Police said the Sharma couple had intended to sell the baby through a mediator named Ritu.
Under questioning, the couple allegedly admitted to a prior sale of another child to a couple in Nainital. That child, too, was traced and recovered, marking the second successful rescue in the case.
Moreover, Ritu was soon located using surveillance techniques and taken into custody. Her interrogation revealed the central nodes of the trafficking racket, prompting raids across Lucknow and Agra.
In one such raid, police rescued a two-month-old boy in Agra from another intermediary, Jyotsna, who they arrested on the spot.
After another arrest of mediator Rachita Mittal alias Rubina Agarwal, the police rescued a two-month-old baby boy. Her statements led them further down the trafficking chain, exposing the spread of the network across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
The investigators, thereafter, traced a 10-day-old infant to a third family in Agra, and also rescued a one-year-old girl allegedly sold by Sundar to a family in Fatehabad, UP.
“Further efforts in pursuit of certain absconding, alleged traffickers to apprehend and arrest them are ongoing. Further investigation of the case is underway,” said Dr Hemant Tiwari, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) in the southeast district of Delhi.
The police have charged the 10 arrested accused under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 143 (trafficking of persons), 3(5) (liability for criminal acts done in furtherance of a common intention), and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy—punishment aligned with abetment for serious offences or up to six months’ imprisonment/fine for others), besides Juvenile Justice Act Section 80 (illegal adoption without adhering to prescribed procedures).
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How the racket worked
Describing the modus operandi, DCP Tiwari said the gang operated primarily through intermediaries—often women from middle-class backgrounds who blended seamlessly into various social circles.
“These were not very poor women but middle-class and socially connected individuals,” DCP Tiwari told ThePrint. “They mingled with families, built trust, and quietly found out who all wanted a child, especially a male child.”
Once aware of such a demand, the intermediaries allegedly planted the idea of procuring a baby, often by mentioning a doctor or hospital they “knew”. Over time, they introduced the notion that a newborn with “no relatives” could be handed over discreetly. To make the handover appear legitimate, the couples were told they needed to pay for only the baby’s medical care or hospital bills.
The adoption rates were steep. Police say prospective parents were charged anywhere from Rs 1.8 lakh to Rs 7.5 lakh, depending on the child’s gender. Baby boys fetched the highest prices.
“The lowest was Rs 1.8 lakh for a girl, while the highest went up to Rs 7.5 lakh for a boy in Agra,” Tiwari said. “The usual rate ranged between Rs 3.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh.”
Notably, police said that many of the adoptive parents believed they were taking in abandoned or orphaned children, not abducted infants.
“No parent knowingly wants an illegal child,” said DCP Tiwari. “They often take the child out of sympathy, and then care for them well. The real culprits are the middlemen and doctors who run this network.”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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