International child trafficking racket busted, 8 including doctors held

Kolkata  :  The West Bengal CID claimed to have busted an international child trafficking racket and arrested eights persons, including two women, for their alleged involvement with it.

Acting on a tip-off, the CID conducted a raid yesterday at Baduria in North 24 Parganas district and arrested two women Najma Bibi, Utpala Byapari, a quack Amirul Biswas, owner of a local nursing home Asadur Jaman, one NGO activist Satyajit Sinha, a clinic-owner Bakbul Baidya and a lawyer Prabhat Sarkar along with his associate Jhantu Biswas.

The six were arrested for their alleged involvement in the trafficking racket, a senior officer of the CID said.

Three babies, kept inside biscuit boxes were recovered from the spot, he said, adding that several documents and papers were also seized from the place.

Police were also looking for a doctor formerly associated with the RG Kar hospital and another local physician from Baduria for their alleged role into the business, he added.

"We had an information about this child trafficking racket where doctors are involved. This gang was targetting women who used to come there mainly to abort," the officer said.

Also couples coming to the nursing home for deliveries were told that the baby was born dead.

"Then the accused persons used to win over sympathy of the couples and convince them that there was no need to take the dead babies with them. And there are cases when they had paid the women sums ranging between Rs 20,000-Rs 30,000 to take away the unwanted baby," the officer said.

As per the prima facie probe, Najma Bidi, wife of Makbul Baidya running a local clinic was the main trafficker while the other woman Utpala Byapari used to be the mediator between the NGO and the nursing home.

The babies were smuggled to other states inside card board boxes meant for biscuit packaging, the officer said.

"A male child used to fetch them Rs two lakh while for a female child the rate was Rs one lakh. This business was operating for past three years and the demand for the babies were from Delhi, Bihar and Mumbai and even overseas," the official added.