A team of officers from Narendrapur police station visited Anandapur to enquire about six women who have been arrested in connection with the sale of a newborn.
Officers from Narendrapur suspect that at least two women who had allegedly facilitated the child sale could be involved in a similar incident of child trafficking that was reported in Narendrapur three months ago.
An officer at Anandapur police station said one of the two women has a similar case registered against her at Patirampur police station in North Dinajpur district.
The Telegraph reported in April that a couple from Narendrapur and a woman were arrested for the alleged sale of the couple’s child for Rs 2 lakh. The child has yet to be traced.
During that investigation, the police had said the woman had given birth to the child in a small nursing home in a village in South 24-Parganas.
“There is a possibility that two of the women who were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the sale of the newborn girl were also involved in the trafficking case registered at Narendrapur police station,” said a senior officer of the Baruipur police district.
Till now, Kolkata police have arrested eight persons, including a man, in connection with the case registered at Anandapur police station. All eight were produced in a court on Thursday and remanded in police custody.
The accused man, the police said, used to contact women who wanted to sell babies with the racketeers.
The arrested persons include the biological mother of the child and a childless homemaker from West Midnapore, who said she had decided tobuy a baby to save hermarriage.
The woman has apparently told the police that she had made an elaborate plan, which included faking her pregnancy, after her mother-in-law threatened her that she would get her son to divorce her because she was childless.
A fertility clinic where the woman went for treatment several years ago issued a statement on Thursday.
“This is to inform that (name of the homemaker) came to (name of the infertility clinic) for her pregnancy-related treatment during pre-Covid times. She was not undergoing any sort of treatment at our Clinic for the last 4 years. The police came to our clinic for a routine enquiry and we have handed them relevant records and case files and cooperating with them. We are in no way involved in any sort of dubious activities and have always maintained high work ethics,” the clinic has said.