Pic: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (ANK)
Mangaluru, Mar 5: One person was arrested for selling a five-month-old infant to a woman at Karkala. The infant was rescued on Friday March 5.
The arrested has been identified as Rayan (30), a resident of Mulky who is running a chicken shop and fancy store.
Police commissioner N Shashi Kumar said, “Odanadi, a Mysuru based NGO, contacted police that a man from Dakshina Kannada is involved in selling infants. Girl babies were being sold at Rs 4 lac and boys at Rs 6 lac. If an advance payment of Rs 1.5 lac was made, the baby will be delivered within a month. During interrogation, it came to light that the accused had already sold a baby to a lady named Kavitha from Karkala for Rs 3 lac. The baby was brought from Hassan.
“There is need of in-depth investigation into this case. Through our investigation, we came to know that Kavitha after buying the baby from the accused, she sold it to another lady named Mariam. The accused’s statement was not very clear during interrogation, so we will produce him to the court and ask for police custody,” he said.
When asked if the baby brought by the accused was a kidnapped one or he had brought it from other means, Shashi Kumar said, “As I said, there is a need of in-depth investigation. If it is a kidnapped baby, then there is a need of missing complaint filed in any police stations. So we are looking in to it.”
Speaking to media, Siddanth, a social worker who works Odanadi NGO said, “We have been working against human trafficking since 30 years and closely coordinating with the police in such cases. One-and-half month ago, we received a call from public that a man from Dakshina Kannada is involved in selling babies.
“As an NGO, we tried to trace the number of the accused. This was a serious issue and I dug deep into the case. I contacted the accused on the pretext of buying a baby. During our conversation, I felt that government officers and doctors are hand-in-glove with this issue. He openly spoke about giving mother card and birth certificates. He has a state-wide network, where he spoke about doctors in Shivamogga, Hassan and Bengaluru. Token advance was to pay Rs 1.5 lac. Meanwhile, I coordinated with Mangaluru police and asked the accused to meet me in Mangaluru where I would pay him advance money. The baby I was promised by the accused was a new-born. During investigation, we came to know about the five-month-old baby in Karkala.
“We suspect that the baby is from unwanted pregnancy as we can see many POCSO cases. There might be a case that the accused was targeting such people and producing fake documents for the baby,” he said.