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11 infants rescued as Telangana police bust trafficking racket; 11 arrested
Medipally police under Telangana’s Rachakonda police commissionerate have busted an interstate child trafficking racket, arrested 11 persons and rescued 11 infants, police commissioner Tarun Joshi said on Tuesday.
Medipally police under Telangana’s Rachakonda police commissionerate have busted an interstate child trafficking racket, arrested 11 persons and rescued 11 infants, police commissioner Tarun Joshi said on Tuesday.
Knowledge about the racket first came to light on May 22, when Medipally police received a complaint from Manyam Sai Kumar, who rescued a baby girl from the clutches of three persons – Shobha Rani, Swapna and Shaik Saleem.
Police arrested the accused and booked a case under sections 370 (human trafficking), 372 (sale of persons below 18 years of age) and 373 read with 34 (sale or hiring or disposing of child) of the Indian Penal Code, besides various sections of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015.
“On interrogation, Shobha Rani revealed she was selling infants in coordination with one Bandari Hari Hara Chetan. The accused have been sent to judicial remand for 14 days,” Joshi said.
Based on the information given by Shobha Rani, Medipally police on Monday arrested Chetan and seven others – Bandari Padma, Balgam Saroja, Mudavath Sarada, Mudavath Raju, Pathan Mumtaz, Jaganadam Anuradha and Yata Mamata, from different parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
“On interrogation of the arrested, it was revealed that these child traffickers used to procure unwanted babies of women from Delhi and Pune through three agents – Kiran and Preethi from Delhi and Kannaiah from Pune. They procured 50 infants in the age group of seven months to one year and sold them to the childless parents in different places in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana through their mediators,” the police commissioner said.
The gang were charging ₹1.8 lakh to ₹5.5 lakh per baby from the parents. After paying commission to the agents and mediators, the gang used to make a profit of ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh on each baby.
“Till now, we rescued 11 babies from the custody of the accused. With the coordination of the Child Welfare Committee of the women and child welfare department of Telangana state government, we sent the infants to Shishuvihar for safe custody,” Joshi said, adding that the three agents, Kiran, Preethi and Kannaiah, were absconding.
The case was unearthed by Medipally inspector of police R Govinda Reddy and sub-inspectors B Prabhakar Reddy, A Narsing Rao and S Anil Kumar, under the supervision of Malkajgiri assistant commissioner of police S Chakrapani and leadership of Malkajgiri deputy commissioner of police P V Padmaja.
