Nurse, mother among 8 held for trying to sell newborn girl

According to the police, the accused are suspected of selling babies in the past as well and further investigations are on by Kharghar police where the FIR was registered by AHTU. The rescued baby, who has been diagnosed with jaundice, is undergoing treatment at JJ Hospital currently.

Navi Mumbai: A gang of eight people, including a nurse of a private hospital in Mumbra and the mother of a 17-day-old baby girl, has been arrested for trying to sell the baby for ₹8 lakh.

Police personnel pose with the rescued newborn girl and the accused. The incident happened in Kharghar wherein a woman, a Mankhurd resident, tried to sell her baby for ₹2.5 lakh with the help of middlemen. After receiving information about the gang, the Anti Human Trafficking Cell Unit (AHTU) of Navi Mumbai got a decoy customer to get talking with the middleman to nab them.

The incident happened in Kharghar wherein a woman, a Mankhurd resident, tried to sell her baby for ₹2.5 lakh with the help of middlemen.

After receiving information about the gang, the Anti Human Trafficking Cell Unit (AHTU) of Navi Mumbai got a decoy customer to get talking with the middleman to nab them.

The accused have been identified as Mumtaz Rahman Mandal, 28, the mother of the baby, from Mankhurd, Mumtaz Niaz Abbas Khan, 48, Nadim Shahid Ahmed Ansari, 29, Ghulam Ghaus Ahmed Ansari, 37, Suresh Shamrao Kamble, 60, all residents of Mumbra along with Zubeida Syed Rafiq, 49, Shamira Banu Mohaddeen Shaikh, 42, residents of Cheetah Camp in Trombay, and Dilshad Alam, 42, from Kherwadi in Bandra.

According to the police, the accused are suspected of selling babies in the past as well and further investigations are on by Kharghar police where the FIR was registered by AHTU.

The rescued baby, who has been diagnosed with jaundice, is undergoing treatment at JJ Hospital currently.

Through a decoy, AHTU was in touch with Nadim Ansari for over a month striking a deal for a newborn. Nadim had sent multiple photos of babies of which one was selected, and he was asked to meet them at Kharghar on Sunday.

“We had laid a trap near Siddhi Vinay Building in Kharghar at Sector-21 wherein Nadim was to come with the baby. The decoy was carrying cash with the first and last notes being real and the rest being plain paper,” said Atul Aher, senior police inspector from AHTU.

Nadim, mother of the baby, and Ghulam came to the spot in an auto and handed over the baby to the decoy and took the bag containing money and then we nabbed them red-handed,”

Further in the investigations, the police learnt that five more people were involved in the case including a nurse of a private hospital where the mother had delivered the baby.

“After the delivery, the nurse asked the mother if she wanted to keep the child or wanted to give it away. Mumtaz already had a son and didn’t want a daughter, besides with their economic condition being poor, she said she would want to give the baby away,” Aher said.

The nurse, identified as Shamira Shaikh, contacted the further chain of people which eventually reached Nadim, who started looking for people to buy the baby.

Of the ₹8 lakh, ₹4 lakh was to go to the mother of the baby and the rest was to be distributed among the remaining seven accused.

According to the police, the accused are suspected of selling babies in the past as well and further investigations are on by Kharghar police where the FIR was registered by AHTU.

The rescued baby, who has been diagnosed with jaundice, is undergoing treatment at JJ Hospital currently.

The accused have been arrested under the sections 370 (Buying or disposing of any person as a slave) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC and sections 81 (Sale and procurement of children for any purpose) and 87 (abetment) of the Juvenile Justice Act.