Girls For Rs 60,000 & Boys For Rs 1.5 Lakh: Baby-Selling Racket Busted in Mumbai, 8 Arrested

Mumbai: Crime branch on Saturday claimed to have busted a baby-selling racket in Mumbai with the arrest of eight people, including 6 women, who were allegedly involved in selling infants under the garb of adoption. Accordingly to the a report by The Times of India, the accused would approach new mothers from economically weaker sections and offer to facilitate the ‘adoption’ of their babies. Also Read - Petrol Prices Touch Record High in Delhi & Mumbai | Check Prices Here

While baby girls were sold for Rs 60,000, boys were sold for Rs 1.50 lakh. So far, the gang has sold four babies in the last six months, however, the police fear that the number could be a lot more. Also Read - Brain Dead UP Woman Gives New Lease of Life to 5 People by Donating Her Organs

The racket came to light after police sub-inspector Yogesh Chavana and Manisha Pawar got a tip-off about a woman who was selling babies. Acting on the tip-off, the police launched an investigation and identified a woman named Rukhsar Shaikh who had sold a baby girl through Rupali Verma. Further probe revealed that another woman Shahjahan Jogilkar had also sold her baby through Verma. Also Read - Thanks to Karnataka Police, Woman Reunited With Her 9-Month-Old Son After He Was Left Abandoned

All the three women were interrogated at the police station, during which Shaikh revelaed that in 2019, Verma had helped sell her baby girl for Rs 60,000 and recently her newborn boy for Rs 1.5 lakh. Jogilkar said she too had sold her newborn son for Rs 60,000 to a family in Dharavi.

During interrogation, Verma named two other persons- Heena Khan and Nisha Ahire- who acted as sub-agents.

Subsequntly, Arti Singh, Rupali Verma, Rukshar Shaikh, Nisha Ahire, Heena Khan, Geetanjali Gaikwad, Shahjahan Jogilkar, and Sanjay Padam were booked under the Indian Penal Code sections of human trafficking and the Juvenile Justice Act. Singh, a lab technician, and Verma were ‘agents’, while Khan and Ahire were ‘sub-agents’ in the baby-selling racket.

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