Trafficking Racket Busted, Six Arrested For Abducting And Selling Babies in Maharashtra

The gang allegedly kidnapped a two-year-old girl from Malad in Mumbai last month, took her to Malwani and later to Nashik, where they were planning to sell her for Rs 2 lakh.

The police managed to track down the child’s family who live under a bridge.

Source : Representational Image/Getty

A gang which allegedly abducted and sold babies to needy couples has been busted with the arrest of five persons from Mumbai and one from Nashik, police said. This comes after the gang allegedly kidnapped a two-year-old girl from Malad in Mumbai last month, took her to Malwani and later to Nashik, where they were planning to sell her for Rs 2 lakh, a Kurar police station official told PTI. However, their deal did not work as planned. This is when they decided to return to Mumbai and abandoned the minor at Dadar railway station.

According to The Times Of India report, a couple rejected the girl for not being young enough. 

Later, the police managed to track down the child’s family who live under a bridge. Following which, nine teams were formed to nab the accused.

The accused were identified as Irfan Khan (26), Salauddin Sayyed (23), Adil Khan (19), Taukeer Sayyed (26), Raza Sheikh and Samadhan Jagtap. They were trading the babies with ‘needy couples’ for cash.

All the accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 363 (kidnapping), 370 (trafficking of person) and 34 (common intention). Further investigations are underway into the matter. 

As per TOI, late in September the girl was taken while she was asleep next to her parents and siblings. The kidnappers then sent photographs to a man named Jagtap using WhatsApp. But Jagtap said he wanted a child younger than six months. The police are trying to figure out if Jagtap was involved in trafficking children in the past, and particularly his link to a cartel in Hyderabad that sell children from across the country.

In another case, at Trombay, police arrested six women for allegedly selling newborns to childless couples. Police plan to invoke the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against these women. One of the accused, Julia Fernandes, has allegedly been involved in six similar cases. Another accused, Sairabano Shaikh, was a quack who was practising at Rahimani Hospital in Govandi. She was a school dropout.