A child trafficking racket was busted, four suspects arrested, two infants — including one from Chandigarh — rescued and their parents informed, the Delhi Police said on Wednesday.
The action follows a tip-off received by the Nangloi police on April 2, around 6pm, about a trafficking gang being spotted in the area.
Deputy commissioner of police (outer) Jimmy Chiram said: “A team was constituted, and a man and three women who were carrying a baby girl were apprehended. They were planning to take the child to an undisclosed location.”
Chiram said that the rescued infant was 15-20 days old.
The police identified the accused as Gurmeet Singh, 41 and his wife Hasmeet Kaur, 37, both residents of Tihar village, Mariyam, 30, of Dallupura, and Naina, 24, of Nihal Vihar. They were booked under sections 370 (trafficking) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 81 of the Juvenile Justice Act.
The police said that when questioned, the suspects revealed that they had picked up the infant from Punjab’s Fazilka. “They said that they were going to sell the child for a heavy amount,” Chiram said.
The police said that the accused used to take away children of financially weak parents for small amounts and sell them for higher amounts to city-based couples who wanted a child but were unable to conceive or adopt one.
“In this case, they brought the baby girl from Punjab and tried to sell her in Uttar Pradesh, but could not find a customer. Later, they were trying to sell her in Delhi, but were caught,” the DCP said.
The police also ascertained from the suspects that they had sold a three-month-old girl to a couple in Chandigarh for ₹25 lakh. “A team then went to Chandigarh to the house of the couple and rescued the girl on Tuesday night,” Chiram said, adding that the two infants were handed over to the Child Welfare Committee.
In February, Rohini police arrested eight people, including five women, for allegedly running an interstate human trafficking gang that bought and sold newborns. They had also recovered a 10-day-old girl from one of the accused.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also busted a network of traffickers involved in buying and selling infants across India for adoption. as well as for other illegal purposes, the agency said last Saturday, after rescuing three children and arresting seven in raids across the capital.
