A 23-day-old girl was allegedly stolen from her mother in Anandapur and sold to a childless woman by the baby’s maternal grandparents for Rs 30,000, police said.
By the time the matter was reported to the police and cops could reach the baby, she had been trafficked and changed multiple hands.
She was rescued from the possession of a woman in Narendrapur, who is suspected to be the final receiver of the child.
The police said they have taken into custody the woman from Narendrapur, the maternal grandparents of the child and two other women, who allegedly acted as middlemen in the baby’s sale.
The child’s mother had lodged a complaint with Anandapur police station on Monday alleging that her father had stolen her baby.
“During the investigation, it emerged that the women’s parents had stolen the baby,” said an officer at the police station.
The police rounded up the woman’s father and pursuing his statement, arrested her mother and two other women.
Finally, after pursuing the leads obtained from the arrested women, the police reached a 40-year-old childless woman who lives in Narendrapur. The child was found in her possession, the police said.
“There are legal ways of adopting a child. Purchasing babies is illegal and amounts to human trafficking,” said an officer at Lalbazar.
All the five persons who have been arrested have been charged under IPC sections dealing with human trafficking and criminal conspiracy, and under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
Earlier this year, a couple who had allegedly sold their newborn for Rs 2 lakh had been arrested in Narendrapur on the charges of human trafficking and abandoning the baby.
In August, a group of women had been arrested for allegedly selling a newborn
to a woman who had faked her pregnancy and was trying to purchase the baby to save her marriage. She was childless.