Child trafficking racket busted, two Hathras Doctors among eight held

Mathura: A Hathras-based Doctor couple and six others were arrested by the police for their alleged involvement in child trafficking. The traffickers sold the child to the local BJP leader for Rs. 1.8 lakh.

The seven-month-old child has stolen from a platform of the Mathura junction six days ago, police officials recovered the child and handed him over to his parents.

Firozabad Municipal Corporation Vineeta Agarwal and her husband Krishna Murari Agrawal had paid Rs 1.80 lakh for the infant as they wanted to have a male child though they had a daughter, the officials said.

Firozabad Mayor Nutan Rathore confirmed that Vineeta Agarwal is a BJP corporator.

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SP (Railways) Mushtaq Ahmad told reporters that the arrested eight persons include two ANMs, the corporation, and her husband.

"The child was sleeping with his mother, a complainant in this case, on the platform. A case was registered at GRP Mathura under section 363 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for kidnapping," Mushtaq said.

"Six teams were constituted to trace the missing child, and a surveillance team was activated to work out CCTV footage available for the incident. The efforts paid dividends, and the gang operating under a doctor couple of Hathras as a kingpin, was busted," the GRP SP stated.

According to HT, the SP GRP further stated that the doctor couple had confessed to running an organized gang involved in the theft and selling of children. "These children were abducted from railway platforms and bus stands and sold to childless couples," the SP GRP said.

"Those arrested include Dr. Prem Behari aged 38 and his wife Dr. Dayawati aged 38, running Bankey Behari Hospital in Nawal Nagar locality of Hathras. The doctor couple ran this gang. Other arrested include Deep Kumar aged 40, Poonam aged 43, Manjeet aged 43, and Vimlesh aged 38 from Hathras, all active members of the gang. Also arrested are Krishna Murari Agarwal aged 51 and Vinita Agarwal aged 49 from Firozabad," informed SP.

"We are investigating the details about the doctor couple as we anticipate that they might have wider contacts and also involved in other cases of stolen children as well. We are also investigating Poonam and Vimlesh as it was revealed that they are working as ANM (Auxiliary Nursing Midwifery) on contract for government welfare schemes. Sections related to the offense of human trafficking are being added to crime," Mushtaq added.

"An infant named Sanjai was stolen at 4 am on August 24 from platform number 8/9 while his parents were asleep, the SP said.

The infant was the son of one Radha, a resident of Parkham village under the Farah Police Station in Mathura district, he said.

They found that one Deep Kumar of Hathras, who sells asafoetida at the station, had kidnapped the child from the platform.

According to officials, the act was the work of an organized gang, including two ANMs, one posted in Hathras and the other in Firozabad. These ANMs or auxiliary nurse midwives looked for couples bereft of a male child as potential buyers, the officials said.

The officials identified the accused as Prem Bihari and Dayavati, who runs a private hospital in Hathras, Poonam and Vimlesh, the ANMs, and Deep Kumar, who stole the child, besides one Manjeet.

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