HUMAN TRAFFICKING BABY-SELLING RACKET BUSTED IN MUMBAI: GIRLS SOLD FOR RS 60K, BOYS FOR RS 1.5L

MUMBAI: Police have busted a baby-selling racket in Mumbai with the arrest of eight people, including 6 women; they were allegedly involved in selling infants under the garb of adoption. The accused would approach new mothers from economically weaker sections and offer to facilitate the ‘adoption’ of their babies for a price—Rs 60,000 for a newborn girl and Rs 1.50 lakh for a boy.

So far, the gang has sold four babies in the last six months, however, the police fear that the number could be higher.

The racket came to light after sub-inspectors Yogesh Chavana and Manisha Pawar got a tip-off about a woman who was selling babies. They launched an investigation and identified a woman named Rukhsar Shaikh who had sold a baby girl through Rupali Verma. Further probe revealed that another woman Shahjahan Jogilkar had also sold her baby through Verma.

All the three women were interrogated at the police station, during which Shaikh revealed that in 2019, Verma had helped sell her baby girl for Rs 60,000 and recently her newborn boy for Rs 1.5 lakh. Jogilkar said she too had sold her newborn son for Rs 60,000 to a family in Dharavi.

During interrogation, Verma named two other persons—Heena Khan and Nisha Ahire—who acted as sub-agents. Subsequently, Arti Singh, Rupali Verma, Rukshar Shaikh, Nisha Ahire, Heena Khan, Geetanjali Gaikwad, Shahjahan Jogilkar, and Sanjay Padam were booked under the Indian Penal Code sections of human trafficking and the Juvenile Justice Act. Singh, a lab technician, and Verma were ‘agents’, while Khan and Ahire were ‘sub-agents’ in the baby-selling racket.