AGRA: Since December last year, at least six unsuspecting couples in UP towns suddenly found their newborns had gone missing. There was never any ransom demand — the children simply disappeared. Seven months on, police found the gang behind it had allegedly worked out an elaborate plan — identify childless couples, promise them a baby, kidnap a newborn and then sell the infant for anywhere between Rs 45,000 and Rs 5 lakh. Sixteen people, including eight members of the gang and eight others — among them mediators and people who bought the kids — have been arrested and sent to jail.
Each member of the gang had their work cut out, Aligarh SP (city) Kuldeep Gunawat told TOI. The five women in the gang — Babli, Chandni, Rekha, Neha and Rashmi — would be on the lookout for couples who wanted a child. Lately, though, police said, some had approached the gang after they heard about the off-the-books “solution” to their problem from couples who had received "help". After this, the gang would strike a deal with the couple, promising a child of whichever gender they preferred in exchange for money. They would then activate their network of midwives, who would tell them about expecting mothers whose children could be whisked away. This is where other members of the gang would take over. Babli’s brother Duryodhan from Etah, Anil from Ghaziabad and Shubham from Hathras would kidnap the newborn and hold them at their own homes. The women of the gang would then hand over the child, take the money and close the deal.
For months, their operation went undetected.
On Sunday, Aligarh police received a tip-off — three men on a bike were “planning” to kidnap an infant. At a crossing in Borna village, a team of cops stopped the bike and took the three men in for questioning. “When they were interrogated, they spilled the beans on their child lifting operation,” Aligarh SSP Kalanidhi Naithani said. The three men were Duryodhan, Anil and Shubham. On the basis of what they said, police zeroed in on the couples who had bought the babies and others involved in the alleged racket.
“A two-month-old girl (yet to be sold, found at Babli’s neighbour house) and a nine-month-old boy from Ghaziabad (sold for Rs 1 lakh), and three kids younger than two from Aligarh (sold at Rs 45,000-Rs 5 lakh) were rescued,” the SSP said. “One boy, believed to have been kidnapped in December 2020, is yet to be traced. He was allegedly sold off to a couple in Mumbai through a contact in Noida.”
