As Bengaluru police bust illegal baby-selling racket, varied modus operandi of gang surfaces

The CCB police arrested eight racketeers — seven women and one man — selling babies to childless couples for ₹8-10 lakh.

The Organised Crime Wing (OCW) of the Bengaluru City Police’s Central Crime Branch (CCB) has busted a child trafficking racket from Tamil Nadu and arrested a gang of eight — seven women and a man, their car driver.

The gang was apprehended when it was about to sell a 20-day-old baby boy to a childless couple in Rajarajeshwari Nagar in West Bengaluru on Friday, 24 November.

The CCB officials, who had credible information about the “deal”, had formed teams and were waiting near the Rajarajeshwari Nagar Temple on Friday evening for the gang members to make their move, a senior police officer told South First on Tuesday.

The CCB sleuths surrounded the car, in which three women and the driver were present with the baby, and rescued the infant.

They handed the infant over to Child Welfare Committee members who were informed soon after the accused were intercepted.

The CCB police said the four arrested from the spot were Hemalatha Sathish and Sharanya, both of them from Erode in Tamil Nadu; Murugeshwari from Madurai in Tamil Nadu; and their driver Kannan Ramaswamy, who is also from Erode.

Their interrogation led the sleuths to the alleged kingpin of the racket — Mahalakshmi (38), a resident of West Bengaluru — and her three associates: Suhasini, Gomathi, and Radha.

Cash for MLA ticket scam: CCB files charge sheet against Chaitra K, 6 others

The revelations

The CCB sleuths arrested all the accused, including Mahalakshmi, by Sunday, and learnt that the gang had networking with three hospitals — two in Bengaluru and one in Chennai.

They also came to know that the gang had taken at least 10 babies from there and sold them to different childless couples in Bengaluru for ₹8-10 lakh.

“The gang had been doing it for many years, but their activities came to light only recently,” Bengaluru City Commissioner of Police (CP) B Dayananda told reporters on Tuesday.

According to him, a large network involving doctors and hospital staff was behind this racket, which also included some doctors and a hospital from Tamil Nadu.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) R Srinivas Gowda told South First that the gang’s members had networked with doctors of at least three hospitals — of which two have been shut down.

“Two hospitals are in Bengaluru while one hospital is situated in Chennai. And we are still verifying which hospitals were the ones that were shut down and also probing into the involvement of doctors and other hospital staff colluded with these racketeers,” Gowda said.

Also read: Murder-accused inadvertently helps bust illegal passport racket!

How the gang operated

The DCP, who is heading and supervising the investigating team, said that the arrested racketeers had confessed that they had sold 10 babies for “high prices” over time. The racketeers also detailed their three modi operandi.

The first was that the racketeers would look for and identify women from economically poor backgrounds and then counsel and convince them to be surrogate mothers.

With childless couples approaching the racketeers, would collude with doctors to arrange for the procedures to illegally inseminate the identified surrogates. They would meanwhile collect huge sums of money from the childless couple to arrange for all these procedures.

Soon after delivery, the racketeers would even arrange for an original birth record for the baby with the childless couple mentioned as parents in the certificate.

In some instances, the racketeers would keep an eye out for women who wanted to terminate their pregnancies. Since almost all hospitals would refuse to terminate pregnancies that exceed 20 weeks after conception, such women would be convinced to undergo delivery and hand over the baby to the racketeers.

The gang would promise such women money, and also convince them that they would take care of not only the delivery expenses at a good hospital with all facilities but also provide nutritious needs for the mother for a safe and healthy delivery.

Soon after the child was delivered, the racketeers would take the baby after handing over the money to the mothers, an investigating officer told South First.

She would be paid around ₹2 lakh, while the racketeers would sell the baby for ₹8-10 lakh, depending on whether it was a boy or a girl, said the officer.

The third way was that the racketeers would look for women who had just given birth but were unable to take care of them.

The gang would then convince the women to part with their child for a hefty sum. The racketeers would also convince the women that the child would certainly have a lavish and healthy life with the childless couple that was going to adopt them.

The gang would also make arrangements for fake adoption documents, which they would hand over to the childless couple once they purchased the baby, said the aforementioned officer.

Bengaluru terror attack foiled: 5 suspects radicalised by LeT operative held

How it started

The CCB sleuths learnt that the alleged kingpin Mahalakshmi, who is a resident of Bengaluru, formed this gang after she sold three of her own children.

The 38-year-old mother of five sold them to childless couples as she was unable to care for them. In turn, when she got a good sum of money, she started networking with like-minded women and formed her the gang, the CCB police said.

Based on a complaint from a CCB police officer, the Rajarajeshwari Nagar police have registered a case booking the accused under Section 370 (trafficking of persons) of the Indian Penal Code, and also under appropriate sections of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.

The CCB police have also seized mobile phones from all the accused along with the car that they were using to sell the 20-day-old baby boy.