Kidnapped baby, cop posing as a heart patient: How child trafficking racket spanning 3 cities was busted

The Delhi Police arrested 10 people, including a doctor, last month.

It was nearly midnight on August 22 when Suresh, a brickmaker travelling to Behror in Rajasthan, woke up at the Sarai Kale Khan ISBT and got the scare of his life. While his wife and three other children were asleep beside him on Platform 2, his six-month-old son was nowhere to be found.

After frantically looking for his child, Suresh approached the nearby Sunlight Colony police station and a case of kidnapping was registered.

What Suresh could not have known that night was that his baby’s disappearance would crack open a larger child trafficking network operating across the country with 10 people, including a doctor, being arrested last month.

During its probe, the police noticed two middle-aged men approaching the sleeping family and leaving the bus terminal with the infant in CCTV camera footage. However, the police could not trace their movements once they stepped outside the ISBT.

“One of the culprits was talking on the phone while they were leaving… we went through a lot of data dumps and scrutinised call records of phones in use in the area at that time… we then found one of the kidnappers with the help of his number,” said Additional DCP (South East) Aishwarya Sharma.

Using the phone number, the police traced the accused to Pinahat village in Agra district. The man, Veerbhan, was arrested.

“During questioning, Veerbhan said that one Rambaran had asked him to kidnap an infant who can be sold. He added that he, along with his father-in-law Kalicharan, travelled to Sarai Kale Khan ISBT and kidnapped the child around 10.30 pm and returned to Fatehabad (in Agra). Thereafter, we apprehended Kalicharan… It was further revealed that the two men, along with Rambaran, took the child to Dr Kamlesh, owner of K K Hospital in Agra,” said DCP (South East) Hemant Tiwari.

Police said the three kidnappers had been paid Rs 50,000 each for the operation. Hoping to catch Dr Kamlesh red-handed, a police officer posed as a heart patient and entered his chambers, leading to his arrest. Dr Kamlesh then allegedly pointed the police towards Sundar, a medical representative, who bought and sold babies for him, police added.

“However, by then, Sundar had been tipped off about the police being hot on his heels. The police team had to chase him for over 50 km before he was caught near the UP-Rajasthan border,” said an officer.

Police said Sundar subsequently pointed the police towards sisters Krishna and Preeti Sharma – two Ayurvedic doctors – who allegedly worked with women seeking to terminate their pregnancies.

“Sundar would visit small clinics across Agra district on the lookout for women seeking to undergo abortions… The accused would convince the women to give birth and then give them up for adoption… they would take money from the women as well,” said Sharma.

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Suresh’s six-month-old boy was found in the Sharma residence. “They alleged that the child was to be sold to one Jyotsna through a mediator, Ritu. They added that they have also sold a baby girl to a couple in Nainital. This child was also traced…,” said Tiwari. The two sisters, Jyotsna and Ritu were arrested.

Police said on Sundar’s instance that he had sold a baby to one Rachita Mittal, the woman was traced and a two-month-old baby was recovered. She was also arrested.

During questioning, Rachita allegedly admitted that she had also sold a 10-day-old boy to a family in Agra.

“Further, Sundar claimed that one Nikhil had handed over a 1-year-old girl to him and he had sold the baby to a family in Fatehabad in August. The girl was rescued from a woman,” said Tiwari, adding that Nikhil was arrested.

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Police said while they initially sought legal action against the adoptive parents, the probe found that they, too, had been scammed by the traffickers who handed them fake adoption papers. “The adoptive parents were also victims of the scam,” said Sharma.

The police said a baby could be sold for as low a price as Rs 1.8 lakh or as high a price as Rs 7.5 lakh – depending on how many people had been involved in the infant’s kidnapping and sale.

Five other children who had been rescued have been sent to the Child Welfare Committee until their families can be traced, said police.