AHMEDABAD: The Nadiad Special Operations Group has arrested four women from Nadiad who were selling a five-day-old male baby for Rs 6 lakh. The mother of the baby was a tribal woman from Madhya Pradesh who had lost her husband five years ago.
Those arrested include a medical student dropout who has completed three years of medical studies.
In-charge superintendent of police Kheda, Arpita Patel, who supervised the entire operation said that the SOG Nadiad, acting on a tip-off, had sent its team with a decoy, who posed as a customer and worked out a deal for Rs 6 lakh for a baby boy.
Patel said that the SOG team was given options about the age of the child, whether they wanted a newborn baby or an older baby and preference for sex of the child. “For a girl child the price was less, while the same for a male child was on the higher side,” Patel said.
She said that the team worked out the entire operation within a week after speaking to a local broker Monica Shah. She said that the cops showed preference for a male child and the rate was fixed for Rs 6 lakh.
Among other arrested was Pushpa Pateliya who was working with Monica, Maya Dabla who had left studies after studying medicine for three years. Dabla does not have a medical degree and Radhika Jayram who had mothered the child and was a widow. Jayram is from Nagpur, Maharashtra and was staying in a chawl in Nadiad.
SOG police Inspector V K Khat, who headed the entire operation said that SOG woman team member PSI R D Chaudhary and two other women constables were sent as decoy. Chaudhary stated that she wanted to adopt a child. Later, according to the deal on Friday the newborn baby was delivered to Chaudhary and all the four were arrested by the SOG team.
The in-charge SP said that while the deal was being worked out, Monica and Pushpa informed the SOG team that the baby was of a Brahmin and the family was totally vegetarian. She said that the cops have the call recording while they were talking to the women for the deal.
Nadiad Police said that of the Rs 6 lakh the mother Jayram was to get Rs 1.5 lakh while the other three would distribute the remaining among themselves. Cops have registered a case under IPC Section 370 (whoever, knowingly or having reason to believe that a minor has been trafficked), Section 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment), Section 144 (unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapon) and Section 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy).
