Child trafficking racket busted in Karnataka, 4 arrested, 6 babies rescued

Police have busted a child trafficking racket, and rescued six babies (aged between 11 months to 2.5 years) in Karnataka's Tumakuru district. Four people, including an owner of a private hospital and three nurses who allegedly sold babies to childless couples have been arrested.

The accused have been identified as Mahesh, a nurse at a government hospital in Kunigal, and Mehboob Shariff (owner of a private hospital). Two female nurses, Sowjanya and Poornima, who were the delivery nurses involved in the case.

Mahesh and Mehboob Shariff used to secure babies from parents who didn't want the child and sold the baby to other couples for Rs 2–3 lakh by illegal adoption procedure.

These babies were mostly born out of extra marital affairs or pre-marital affairs and hence, their biological parents didn't want to keep the babies.

MODUS OPERANDI

Couples who wanted babies pretended to be pregnant and were admitted to the private hospital in Tumkur owned by Mehboob Shariff.

They were then 'discharged' by faking a delivery with an illegally adopted baby (same babies that were secured by Mahesh and Mehboob from original parents) with a fake birth certificate, pretending that the baby was their own.

"This has been happening since 2022, and it has been done with 9 babies. At Mehboob Shariff's private hospital, couples who wanted to have kids came in and pretended to be pregnant and having a delivery. They then obtained fake birth certificates. We suspect there are more people involved in this. We will take this seriously and send all the accused to jail," Tumkur SP Ashok KV said.

Parents who bought the kids will also be seen as accused as they went against the legal adoption procedure, he added.

So far, police have rescued six babies who are being given support and care at a child protection centre.

One baby is reportedly dead, and the other two babies are being brought from Hyderabad and Davangere.