Man identifies Bengal baby sale racket kingpin, claims he snatched his baby
A man who allegedly lost his newborn son in July 2014 in a nursing home in Kolkata’s Tartala’s area and was never given the body, has identified the baby sale racket kingpin Tapan Kumar Biswas as the man behind the child’s disappearance.
A man who allegedly lost his newborn son in July 2014 in a nursing home in Kolkata’s Tartala’s area and was never given the body, has identified the baby sale racket kingpin Tapan Kumar Biswas as the man behind the child’s disappearance.
More than two years later, Asish and Kanon Sarkar have learnt that Biswas had instead sold off their son, after convincing the couple that the child was ill and needed to be admitted to a nursing home for urgent treatment.
On the night of July 14, 2014, the Sarkars, then aged 36 and 25, residents of Maslandapur in North 24 Parganas, and were taken to the nursing home about 75 km away by Biswas who claimed he knew the doctors there.
About half an hour after Asish left his wife and son in the nursing home, the baby was reported dead. When Asish rushed back to the nursing home the next morning with his brother-in-law the staff refused to show them the body. Ashish claims that he and his brother-in-law were eventually showed the body which was bigger, possibly indicating decomposition might have set in.
After news broke that Biswas was arrested, Asish telephoned CID sleuths who took him to the department’s headquarters on Sunday where he identified the kingpin.
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“The entire plot became clear to us in a flash. My son did not die. They lied to us, showed the body of another baby and then sold off my son,” said Sarkar as he broke down.
But why didn’t they demand the body of their son? “I was shattered at the news, and I was busy comforting my wife. Moreover, it did not occur to us at all that they could be up to such heinous tricks,” said Sarkar.
The poor couple had mulled filing a police complaint against the nursing home after the baby was reported dead but eventually did not.
“When we entered the nursing home, a doctor who was about to leave, examined him briefly and told us that he appeared healthy and perfect before walking out. In a few minutes Biswas appeared and told us that he will take us to a better doctor. Soon this new doctor examined the baby again and told us that he urgently needed a surgery and that we should admit him and his mother and go back home,” Sarkar told HT.
The Sarkars are an example how the racket used to dupe weak and poor families.
Biswas had wormed his way into the Sarkars’ life by delivering two babies of Asish’s sister-in-law. But those deliveries were at home and he could not remove the babies.
On Tuesday, Ashish sounded defiant and prepared for a long fight. “I will not let them walk away with our son. I shall fight to the finish to get him back,” he told HT.
Incidentally, Biswas has also admitted to the CID that Sarkar’s son was sold off. “Biswas told us that Sujoy Saha, or Pradip, both employees of that Taratala nursing home, can say who sold the baby and to whom,” said a CID official.
The Sarkars have an elder son.
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