Ranchi, Nov 6 (IANS): The Ranchi police has arrested eight persons, including three women, in a case where a one-and-a-half-year-old child was kidnapped and sold to a couple for Rs 1.25 lakh on the pretext of getting the mother a house and money from cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The child has also been recovered.

The child was abducted from Hinoo in Ranchi city on October 22. Madhu Devi, a resident of Jagannathpur area of ??Ranchi, was standing with her child in Hinoo, when a man and a woman came there and told her that M.S. Dhoni was distributing houses and money among the poor. On their request, the woman accompanied them on a bike and reached Harmu Electricity Office. There, after engaging her in conversation, the duo ran away with her child.

Ranchi SSP Chandan Kumar Sinha said that an SIT was formed to investigate this matter. The team first caught Vinay Verma, a resident of Madhukam, Ranchi and Saluja Begum, a resident of Simdega. During their interrogation, it was revealed that the kid had been sold to a childless couple from Itkhori in Chatra district.

At their instance, the police arrested the other accused Geeta Munda, Krishna Mishra, residents of Ramgarh, Sajid Ansari, a resident of Chanho in Ranchi, Mahendra Sao, Kunti Devi and Sarita Devi, residents of Chatra’s Itkhori, who were involved in selling the child.