Babies with a price tag…: Child selling racket thrives in Mysuru

Mother-daughter duo arrested; two children rescued 

Mysore/Mysuru: Mysuru is not new to child trafficking rackets. Shockingly, the gangs thrive and notably, the city areas are the breeding grounds for the deals to flourish. Though some arrests are made from time to time, repeated incidents of baby selling shows how law enforcement agencies have not been able to end their trail of trafficking despite having arrested them multiple times.

At a press conference at his office this morning, Mysuru Superintendent of Police (SP) R. Chethan has warned both baby sellers and baby buyers that law would catch up with them. 

“Child selling and buying is illegal and all adoptions must be made through Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA). The Police, Health Department and Women & Child Welfare Department are jointly collaborating to bring racketeers to book,” he said.

Mother and daughter involved

Revealing how the well-oiled racket thrived in Mysuru, the SP said that two persons —Shrimathi alias Saraswathi and daughter Srilakshmi — have been arrested for selling a baby from Nanjangud to a childless couple at Holenarasipura in Hassan. One more child was sold to a childless couple in Kollegal. The deal was brokered by kingpin Shrimathi who had been arrested in 2016 for being part of a similar racket.

Shrimathi is a nurse/ consultant who worked at many medical centres and had approached Jyothi, a resident of Thyagaraja Colony in Nanjangud. Jyothi was paid Rs. 4 lakh for the baby and the money has been recovered from her. Jyothi had married Mahadeva six years back and their first child died in the womb three years back.

Jyothi became pregnant again and she confided with Srimathi that she is unable to take care of her child well due to poverty. The deal was struck during pregnancy and in the meantime, Mahadev too breathed his last. Shrimathi brought Jyothi to SLES Multispeciality Hospital in N.R. Mohalla where the latter underwent Caesarean Section to give birth to the male child.

After the childbirth, Shrimathi took the baby from the mother and sold it to Yeshodamma and Basavaraju of Holenarasipura in Hassan for an undisclosed amount. Meanwhile, Anganwadi workers, led by Shashikala, who had knowledge about Jyothi’s pregnancy, visited the latter’s house recently to supply nutritious food.

Two children rescued

Shashikala, who had the child birth in their records, questioned the woman about the child when the latter replied that the child had died. Unconvinced by her evasive replies, Shashikala asked the woman about the cremation details and here too the woman fumbled for answers. 

Later, Shashikala informed the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) and also the Child Welfare Committee (CWC). A Police complaint was lodged at Nanjangud Town Police Station and subsequently, 60-year-old Shrimathi alias Saraswathi was arrested from Nanjangud. As the Police had prior information about Shrimathi’s activities, she was subjected to intense grilling.

Shrimathi told the Police that one more girl child born to Manjula and Manoj couple was sold to Chaitra and Umesh of Kollegal. This deal was brokered by Shrimathi’s daughter 31-year-old Srilakshmi, also a resident of Nanjangud. 

“The racket thrived in Mysuru with the help of SLES Multispeciality Hospital in N.R. Mohalla where documents of the child and parents are created not in the name of biological parents but in the name of the couple who pay money to buy the child,” SP Chethan said. 

Cases have been booked against the Hospital too and teams are tracing other accused who are at large, he added. 

Highest bidder gets the babies 

The racketeers flouted the extremely stringent adoption rules in India and had indulged in forgery and falsification of documents. Poverty of the biological parents and the childless state of couples are the main weapons of the racketeers. The racketeers obviously had connections in high places and the Police are investigating in all angles, the SP said. 

“Poverty-stricken biological parents are convinced to give away their infants. These infants in turn were given to childless couples and the children were sold to the highest bidder. We have rescued both the children and they are now being taken care of at Bapuji Children’s Home in the city,” Chethan added. 

Additional SP R. Shivakumar, Nanjangud Dy.SP Govindaraju, Nanjangud Inspector Lakshmikantha Talawar, Sub-Inspectors Vijay Raj and Cheluvaiah and others were present.