Rs 5 lakh per newborn: Doctor among 6 held in trafficking racket

Lucknow: In a recent child trafficking case reported in the city, a joint investigating team comprising members of the police and the crime branch arrested six people, including a doctor, on charges of selling newborns and operating the racket from a private nursing home in the Madiyaon region.

During the investigation, authorities discovered that the group was selling newborns for Rs 5 lakh for a boy and Rs 3 lakh for a girl. Fortunately, a newborn was rescued during the sting operation. 

Also read- Lucknow doctor arrested for trafficking of Newborns

The accused have been identified as 33-year-old Dr Altaf, 44-year-old Vinod Singh, a contractor-cum-caretaker, 24-year-old Neeraj Kumar Gautam, the clinic compounder; 45-year-old Kusum Devi, and 32-year-old Santosh Kumari, (both of them worked as patient assistants in the facility) and 50 -year-old Sharma Devi. 

All of them have been arrested under sections 143(4) (trafficking of persons) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the BNS. They were caught near Shankarpur Dhal by the police while trying to escape. 

As per the HT news report, the racket was busted after the team conducted a sting operation and found out about the selling of the newborns. On February 24, the team launched an investigation into the case and their probe confirmed that the accused were involved in the trafficking of newborns. 

On Tuesday, they were tipped off that some accused were trying to flee Madiyaon and caught the latter near Shankarpur Dhal. During the arrest, officers recovered two mobile phones and Rs 1,250 from the suspects.

Now, the police are investigating how long the racket has been operating and whether the group has been involved in similar crimes in other districts.

Also read- Karnataka: Doctor among 5 held in child trafficking racket