‘DNA report aaya kya?’: Long wait for parents after their newborns were ‘put up for adoption’ by baby-selling gang

The gang is accused of coaxing poor parents to give up their newborns for adoption, after which videos of the children — along with their “prices” — would be shared with prospective buyers

Like clockwork each day, officers at the Begumpur Police Station in New Delhi have been receiving two calls for the past six months from Punjab — one from a farmer in Firozpur district and the other from a wedding photographer in Muktsar district. Both callers ask them the same question: “Test report aaya kya sir (has the test report come)?”

The report of the DNA test they have been enquiring about will determine who would finally take home the six-month-old unnamed girl, living under the care of a West Delhi-based NGO since she was rescued from Rohini’s Begampur colony on February 20 from a gang accused of selling babies. She was barely 10 days old at the time of her rescue.

The gang is accused of coaxing poor parents to give up their newborns for adoption, after which videos of the children — along with their “prices” — would be shared with prospective buyers. According to the chargesheet filed in the case in a Rohini court recently, nine persons, including two Punjab-based ASHA workers and a midwife who ran a clinic there, have been named as accused under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 370 (4) (trafficking), 120B (pertaining to conspiracy) and 34 (pertaining to common intention).

When the police arrested ASHA workers Simranjeet Kaur and Pooja Rani in connection with the racket, they stumbled upon blank stamp papers bearing the signatures of Lek Singh and Amandeep, besides copies of their Aadhaar cards. Lek Singh and Amandeep were then tracked to their villages in Punjab.

While farmer Lek Singh, 32, from Panjeke Hithar village in Firozpur district’s Jalalabad, claimed that he gave away his baby girl for adoption on February 15, photographer Amandeep, 35, a resident of Gidderbaha in Muktsar district, said he put up his daughter for adoption on February 10.

After receiving a call from the Delhi Police on March 28, Lek Singh and Amandeep told The Indian Express on the telephone that they arrived in the national capital to give DNA samples in early April. While DNA test results are typically processed in around five days, the report is yet to arrive from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) Rohini, the biggest of four forensic labs in Delhi which deal with thousands of cases every month.

As they wait for the test report, both men — who already have two daughters each — say they decided to put up their third one for adoption due to their “weak” financial condition and in hope that their daughter will have a “bright future with a well-off couple”.

Both have similar stories of how they were persuaded to give up their children. Claiming they were unaware that they were being “decieved by a gang”, the two men said their only aim now was to “get their child back”.

Lek Singh, who owns a small parcel of land in his village, says, “My third daughter was born underweight on February 15. When doctors said she needed medical treatment, I realised that the cost of her treatment was beyond me.”

Two days later, village ASHA worker Pooja Rani — named as one of the accused in the chargesheet — visited his house. Since Pooja had taken care of his wife during her pregnancy, he says they considered her “family”.

“She advised me to let a well-off family she knew in Delhi adopt my daughter. Pooja is from my village and we thought she had good intentions. Little did we know that our daughter was being sold by a gang. Pooja made me sign blank papers, claiming that it was a part of the adoption process,” he says.

Amandeep, who earns a modest salary working as a wedding photographer, says he gave up his daughter for adoption on February 10, a day after she was born. His wife gave birth at the clinic run by accused midwife Binder Kaur, also named in the chargesheet.

Amandeep says, “We trusted Binder didi blindly. A day after my daughter was born, she approached us, claiming that her cousin, a government servant in Delhi, and his wife were unable to conceive due to health issues. She convinced us that my daughter would be better off with them.”

On February 10, he says, one Rajinder, also named in the chargesheet, turned up at Binder’s clinic in a suit. Claiming that he was a government servant, he allegedly signed forged adoption papers before taking away Amandeep’s daughter. Rajinder originally worked as a taxi driver in Punjab, the chargesheet states.

On his daily calls to the case incharge in Delhi for updates on the DNA test results, Amandeep says, “My wife and I just want to bring our child back home. We will take care of all her needs.”

According to the chargesheet, the accused are part of a “baby-selling racket in Delhi and Punjab”.

The document states that ASHA workers Simranjeet Kaur and Pooja Rani would go to the houses of low-income families in several villages of Punjab in search of newborns or expectant mothers.

The modus operandi followed by them was the same — the ASHAs would strike a friendship with the victims “on the pretext of tending to their medical needs” and later “advise” them to let a well-off childless acquaintance of theirs raise the child instead.

The chargesheet states that ASHAs Simranjeet and Pooja allegedly handed over the victims’ babies at Binder’s “clinic” in Punjab. The police said Binder was in touch with Delhi-based Priya Devki and Sangram, who sold these babies. The police said Priya was involved in a baby-selling racket in north-east Delhi earlier and was released on bail a year back.

The police said Pooja Rani and Raman, also an accused, would also pose as a “wealthy childless couple looking to adopt a baby.”

The chargesheet states that data was recovered from their seized mobile phones, with “videos of newborns sent to clients with prices”. The total number of victims targeted by the accused is yet to be ascertained, the police said.