Four more women arrested in child trafficking racket busted by Crime Branch

Mumbai crime branch arrests 4 more women in child trafficking case, bringing total arrested to 14. Children rescued and kept in private orphanage.

MUMBAI: The Mumbai crime branch on Tuesday arrested four more women in connection with the child trafficking racket that sold at least 14 children to childless couples. The four women have been arrested from Vishakhapattanam, and with their arrest, the total number of arrested accused in the case has gone up to 14, which include 12 women.

Almost 20,000 women and children were victims of human trafficking in India in 2016, according to government data. (HT File/ Representational Photo)

Police said that based on their interrogation, they rescued two children - an eight-month-old baby girl from Visakhapatnam and a two-year-old boy from Akola district in Maharashtra on Tuesday. Besides, the police have also rescued two 2-year-old children from Malad and Ratnagiri on April 27. They were allegedly sold to couples in April 2023 and December 2022 for ₹2 lakh and ₹5 lakh, respectively.

“All the four children rescued by the crime branch so far have been kept in a private orphanage,” said Ragasudha R, deputy commissioner of police, crime branch.

On Monday, Unit 2 of the crime branch arrested three women - Poonam Santosh Kharade, 29, from Asalpha village in Ghatkopar, Rina Rajkishore Gupta, 29, from Nalasopara, and Swati Sahdeo Bhaira, from Naigaon. They allegedly sold three children below two months to childless couples in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam through egg donor Sneha Suryavanshi, who was arrested on April 27 along with six others.

During interrogation, Kharade confessed that she knew Suryavanshi through a common friend, and had sold a 15-day-old girl to a Hyderabad-based couple through her in February this year for ₹2 lakh, said a crime branch officer.

Gupta knew Suryavanshi, as they had worked together. Recently, Suryavanshi told her that she required a baby girl for a childless couple and therefore Rina arranged for a three-month-old baby girl and it was sold to the couple in Visakhapatnam in March for ₹1.4 lakh, the officer added.

During further interrogation, Bhaira revealed that she also managed to get a one-month-old baby girl from Ulhasnagar and sold her to a Hyderabad-based couple through Suryavanshi in March this year in ₹4 lakh, said the police officer. “We have been trying to get details of the biological parents of the children and also trying to trace the parents who bought the children,” he added.

Unit 2 of the crime branch arrested seven accused, including five women and a doctor, on April 27, busting a syndicate involved in the alleged sale of 14 children aged from one month to 4 years over the past 1.5 years.