Jharkhand gang rape survivor sells unborn child

The incident came to light after someone informed the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in Ranchi, which recovered the child with the help of the local police on Friday.

RANCHI: A widow who became pregnant after being gang-raped in Narayanpur Soso village near Jharkhand capital Ranchi sold the child even before it was born to a childless couple in December last year.

The incident came to light after someone informed the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in Ranchi, which recovered the child with the help of the local police on Friday.

“The child, which is currently in our custody, will be produced before us and sent for adoption. The mother was a rape victim and conceived the child out of the crime. The deal to hand over the child to the purchaser after its birth had been finalized when she was five months pregnant,” said CWC Chairperson Rupa Verma, who said action will be taken against both parties.

The child was apparently taken away by the couple that bought it soon after it was born in December, but the amount involved in the deal was yet to be disclosed as the matter is still under investigation, she added.

The child, currently lodged at ‘Karuna’ National Medical Organization, will not be handed over to any of the two parties involved and will be given up for adoption, she said.

However, while admitting that the child was recovered from the Kokar area in Ranchi on Friday, the local police insisted that it had not been sold.

“Though the child was born out of the incident of rape, the widowed woman said that she handed over the child to the childless couple only for taking care of it and no money was involved in it,” said Silli DSP Chandra Shekhar.

The woman, a daily wage earner whose husband died four years ago, had accused two people from the same village, Lalku Kumhar Munda and Rajkumar Munda, of raping her in March last year.Her eldest daughter (12) is a school student, while two other children, both boys aged 4 and 6, live with her.

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