Baby selling racket busted in Mumbai

MUMBAI: The city crime branch has busted a gang of eight including six

women who were into selling new born babies.

Shockingly while the baby girls were sold for Rs 60,000, baby boy was

sold for Rs 1.50 lakh. Preliminary investigations have suggested that the

gang has in six months have sold four babies, but police suspect the

number of babies could be much more.

The crime branch unit 1 have on Saturday arrested Arti Hiramani Singh,

Rukshar Shaikh, Rupali Verma, Nisha Ahire, Geetanjali Gaikwad and

Sanjay Padam. Interestingly Arti Singh is a pathology lab technician who

played a middle person's role in the child kidnapping racket.

The arrested accused have been booked under the IPC sections of

human trafficking and Juvenile Justice Act.

Police have also seized eight mobile phones containing pictures of new born babies, WhatsApp chats which police believe

could help them understand the number of babies sold and trace families in Mumbai and Pune. Police have also called for the

Call Detail Record (CDR) of all the accused.

The racket came to light after police sub inspector Yogesh Chavan and Manisha Pawar of unit 1 got a tip off that a woman

staying in Dnyaneshwar Nagar in Bandra east was indulging in child selling.

Chavan and Pawar started a discreet inquiries and identified Rukshar Shaikh who had recently sold a baby girl she delivered at

VN Desai hospital. "On further inquiries we learnt that another woman Shahjahan Jogilkar had sold her baby boy to a Pune

based family through Rupali Verma. This was Shahjahan’s second child sold through Rupali Verma," said an officer.

Both these women were staying with their old mothers at Rajiv Gandhi Nagar in Bandra east. On January 14, the Police team

then picked up Rukhsar, Shahjahan and Rupali and brought them to unit one’s office at Police headquarters at Crawford

market.

In detail, the duo admitted to being involved in the crime. Rukshar told that in 2019 she sold her baby girl for Rs 60,000 and

now a baby boy for Rs 1.50 lakh through Rupali Verma. Shahjahan too told police that in 2019 she sold her son for Rs 60,000 to

a family in Dharavi.

Rupali during the course of interrogation revealed two more names Heena Khan and Nisha Ahire acted as sub agents in the

deal. Based on the information police arrested Heena and Nisha who told that Shahjahan’s son was sold to Sanjay Padam from

Dharavi for Rs 1.50 lakh.

``We have information that all the accused have sold many babies in the past. Their modus operandi is to move around poor

localities, identify pregnant ladies, convince them with money and then sell the babies.

Police then arrested Sajay Padam for purchasing the baby without following any legal adoption rules. Now police are trying to

figure out two babies of Ruskhar which have been sold to a family in Dadar and another in Pune. A team has gone to Pune and

another is in Dadar searching the two recipient families.

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