Trafficked Newborn Was ‘Unaffordable’ 5th Daughter
A farm labourer couple from Firozpur in Punjab gave away their newborn daughter in the hope that she would find a loving home away from poverty. Instead, she ended up in the hands of child traffickers and was almost sold for Rs 25 lakh in Gujarat. The girl, now 17-days-old, is fighting for her life with multiple health complications in hospital.
Gujarat police on Monday traced and brought to Vadodara the couple believed to be the biological parents of the newborn girl rescued by the SHE Team before she could be sold at the railway station in that city on September 4. The alleged birth parents, Mithun Singh and Shimla Rani, were named in the birth record found by the police.
Police said that the parents had ‘opted’ to give away the child for ‘adoption’ as she was their fifth daughter. The couple could not afford to raise one more child, especially a daughter. They have also allegedly given off another daughter, their fourth, to their relatives without going through the legal process since they are illiterate and appear to be unaware of the adoption laws.
Vadodara police had dispatched two teams to Delhi last week to apprehend the masterminds of the racket. One team visited Firozpur in Ludhiana and located the alleged biological parents.
An officer told Mirror, “The couple was brought to Vadodara on September 12. The wife was sent to SSG Hospital to be with the child. We have submitted blood samples of the couple and child for DNA testing and expect to get the results shortly.” However, police officials are confident that the couple are indeed the child’s parents.
SSG Hospital pediatrics HoD, Dr Sheila Aiyar, said, “The biological mother of the newborn child, who remains in critical care in NICU, was brought to the hospital today.”
New suspects emerge
Accused Priyanka aka Priya, her mother and an anonymous man with her are still absconding. Meanwhile, a nurse or midwife (dahya) who delivered the child, was allegedly the go-between in the case.
Police said that the biological parents had asked the nurse/midwife to search for someone who could take care of the child. She, in turn, put them in touch with a man and woman, allegedly from Rajasthan, who took the child. They were approached by the Gujarat Police two days ago. Inspector B B Patel said, “We are trying to ascertain the identities of the anonymous man and woman who took possession of the child in Punjab.”
Mirror had reported on September 11 how Pooja, a debt-ridden mother of four from Delhi, had been roped into child trafficking by Priyanka by pledging to pay her a meagre Rs5,000 to pay her daughter’s school fees.
Pooja, her nephew Deepakkumar, and the prospective ‘adoptive’ couple Saurabh and Soma Vera, are in police custody for child trafficking.