Noting that incidents of sale of newborns were on the rise and did not deserve any leniency, a district court has awarded five members of an infant-trafficking gang, including an ASHA worker, 14 years in jail.
The court also imposed a fine of ₹1.2 lakh on the convicts Bhavana from Sector 45, Chandigarh; Kuldeep Kaur from Jahlan, Patiala; Sarabjeet Kaur, an ASHA worker from Mimsha village, Sangrur; Mandeep Singh from Jalaldiwal, Ludhiana; and Amarjeet Singh from Kharar.
They were convicted under Sections 370-5 (trafficking of more than one minor) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 81 (sale and procurement of children for any purpose) of Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act.
Nabbed in August 2020
According to police, the gang was busted on August 3, 2020, following a tip-off that they were involved in the sale of infants. The informer had told the police that the gang had offered to sell him a newborn girl for ₹40,000 to 50,000 and a newborn boy for ₹4 lakh to ₹5 lakh.
Acting on the information, police laid a trap and arrested the five accused from the Airport light point and rescued a two-day-old boy from their possession.
{{/usCountry}}Acting on the information, police laid a trap and arrested the five accused from the Airport light point and rescued a two-day-old boy from their possession.
{{/usCountry}}The newborn’s mother was traced to Malerkotla. It was found that the woman, Sadhana, had given birth to twins. While discharging her, ASHA worker Sarabjeet did not discharge one of the newborns, claiming that he needed more treatment, and kidnapped the child.
Following their arrest, accused Bhavana revealed they had previously sold a newborn girl in Chandigarh. The child, born on July 27, 2020, in Muktsar, was also rescued and reunited with her mother, Kirna.
Kirna had told the court that she had given her child to a female acquaintance when she offered that her sister will adopt her and pay the hospital charges. But she later got to know that her daughter was given to someone else.
“Convicts in criminal conspiracy with each other received and harboured two newborn children for the purpose of exploitation by practicing fraud or deception and did an illegal act of trafficking,” the court of additional district and sessions judge Narender observed in its January 27 order, whose detailed copy was made available recently.
“Even though the convicts are not stated to be accused of any criminal offence in the past, looking at the serious nature of offences, they do not deserve any leniency. Punishment must be a deterrent to protect society from such offenders,” the court held, while awarding them 14 years in jail.