Desperate poverty drove a 35-year-old woman to sell one of her four-month-old twin sons for Rs. 62.40.
The deal took place on Thursday at the local railway station, close to the Nepal border in Bihar’s Araria district, where Shannu Khatun begs to support her disabled husband and three children. She admitted to “giving away her child for his own sake” but denied receiving payment.
Saiyad Ahsan Ali, Railway Protection Force sub-inspector in charge of the station, also said Khatun had “donated” her child to a Nepalese couple. But Khatun’s eight-year-old daughter, Shabina, said her brother Shamim was sold for Nepalese Rs. 100.
The police have contacted their counterparts in Nepal.