Mumbai: Lab technician among 8 arrested for selling babies

MUMBAI: The city crime branch busted a baby-selling racket with the

arrest of eight people, including a pathology lab technician.Accordingly to

the police, the accused would approach new mothers from economically

weaker sections and offer to facilitate the ‘adoption’ of their babies for a

price—Rs 60,000 for a newborn girl, and Rs 1.5 lakh for a boy. Preliminary

investigations indicate that the gang sold four babies in the last six

months, but the police suspect the number could be much higher.

Among those arrested on Saturday were Arti Singh, Rupali Verma,

Rukshar Shaikh, Nisha Ahire, Heena Khan, Geetanjali Gaikwad, Shahjahan

Jogilkar, and Sanjay Padam. Singh, a lab technician, and Verma were

‘agents’, while Khan and Ahire were ‘sub-agents’ in the baby-selling

racket.

The police seized eight mobile phones from the accused. They hope to trace the babies sold to families in Mumbai and Pune

from the photographs and WhatsApp chats retrieved from the phones.

The police have also sought the call detail records of the arrested accused, who have been booked under the Indian Penal

Code sections of human trafficking and the Juvenile Justice Act.

The racket came to light after sub-inspector Yogesh Chavan and Manisha Pawar of crime branch unit 1 got specific information

that a woman from Dnyaneshwar Nagar in Bandra (E) had sold her newborn girl. They made discreet enquiries and identified

Shaikh. “On further probe, we learnt that she had sold her baby boy to a Pune-based family through Verma. This was the

second child she had sold via Verma,” said a police officer.

On January 14, the police picked up Shaikh, Jogilkar and Verma and questioned them at the unit 1’s office at the police

headquarters at Crawford Market. Shaikh allegedly told the police 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.

Verma, during interrogation, spilled the beans on Khan and Ahire. The police then arrested Khan, who allegedly admitted to

selling Jogilkar’s son to Padam for Rs 1.5 lakh. Padam was then nabbed.

Police are trying to trace Shaikh’s two babies who have been sold to two different families in Dadar and Pune

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