Not nine months, nine days pregnant. Just pay for the baby to come into your arms! A lot of shopping is done by looking at the rate card. Police have discovered a shocking ‘baby market’ in the capital Delhi. A shocking case of inter-state child trafficking has been uncovered.
Newborn babies are allegedly sold for lakhs of rupees and buyers are charged as ‘token money’ in advance. Delhi Police rescued five newborns after long surveillance and undercover operation. Several accused including doctors, brokers, smugglers, middlemen and potential buyers have been arrested in this incident.
According to police investigation, newborn boys were sold for Tk 6-8 lakh and girls for Tk 3-4 lakh. This inter-state cycle primarily targets financially weak families. The newborns were allegedly collected from different parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat and handed over to childless couples in Delhi-NCR and neighboring states.
According to police sources, the entire gang was caught on the initiative of a responsible citizen of Delhi. The incident started from the person’s suspicion. The man saw a woman with a child in Delhi’s Paharganj area. A few days later, seeing another child with the same woman became suspicious, so he informed the police. Based on that information, the investigators tracked down the child trafficking ring after about 15 days of monitoring.
Investigations revealed that the gang used fake documents, fake medical certificates and fake identities to procure newborns and hand them over to potential buyers. In some cases false pregnancy stories were allegedly fabricated and hospital records were misused. The role of the hospital and the doctors involved is also being looked into as part of the investigation.
According to the police, the rescued children are aged between 5 days and 4 months. The children have been taken into safe custody and searches for their families or legal guardians are ongoing.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the cycle was not confined to Delhi; Its network is spread across several states. Investigators are now trying to find out how many more children have been trafficked through the network in the past few years. Some reports say as many as 30 children have been trafficked through the ring and multiple couples are being investigated for their roles.
Five newborns have been rescued so far in the operation. The babies are said to be between 5 days and 4 months old. In the investigation, a total of 13 people including doctors, brokers, traffickers, middlemen and potential buyers were arrested. The investigation is still ongoing and efforts are underway to identify others involved in the network.
