Nine held for sale of baby girl in Virudhunagar

Arrested include the mother and a couple from Madurai

Virudhunagar District Police have arrested nine persons in connection with illegal sale of a one-year-old baby girl on Thursday.

The police said besides the baby’s mother, grandfather and a childless couple from Madurai who adopted it, two of their relatives and three persons offering matrimonial service — Karthik, Maheswari and Nandakumar, all from Erode district — were arrested.

The police said the baby’s mother lost her husband sometime back. As she was raising the baby with her family’s support, her family members started looking for an alliance for her second marriage.

“It was then that Karthik, who was approached for the alliance, reportedly told the woman’s father that it would be difficult to find an alliance for a woman with a child. He advised them to sell the baby,” a police officer said.

Meanwhile, a childless couple from Madurai were identified and the baby changed hands on February 14. When the woman’s neighbours found the baby missing, they alerted Childline. Subsequently Soolakkarai police, led by Virudhunagar Deputy Superintendent of Police B. Archana, started investigation.

The probe revealed the illegal adoption and the child was rescued within hours from the Madurai couple. “While they reportedly gave ?2.50 lakh to Karthik, the baby’s grandfather was given only ?80,000,” the police said.

Superintendent of Police M. Manohar said, “Karthik could have been carrying out this illegal adoption business by identifying young mothers seeking alliance for second marriage.”

The couple were misguided by the accused. “They were not aware of the legal procedures to adopt a child and fell in the trap laid by him,” Mr. Manohar said, adding further investigation would reveal whether any other children were illegally sold by Karthik and his associates.