Police in Hyderabad on Thursday arrested a couple for selling their newborn girl child for Rs 35,000 with the help of a doctor and a couple of mediators.
While the couple was paid Rs 10,000, the remaining amount was shared by the doctor and the mediators.
The incident took place at a private nursing home in Ibrahimpatnam town on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
According to K Narsing Rao, inspector in the special operations team (SOT) of Rachakonda police, K Vanitha (26) of Sathithanda hamlet of Loyapally village, had given birth to a girl child at the local Telangana Multi Speciality Hospital on February 28.
Her husband Korra Jawaharlal, however, wanted to get rid of the baby, as she was the third girl child for them.
The couple contacted Dr Nerella Shankar of the same hospital and his friend Srinivas and struck a deal for Rs 10,000.
Shankar and Srinivas, with the help of a mediator, Shanta, traced a childless couple, E Ravi and Varalakshmi, and sold the girl child to them for Rs 35,000.
While Jawaharlal was paid Rs 10,000, the doctors and mediators shared the remaining amount.
{{/usCountry}}While Jawaharlal was paid Rs 10,000, the doctors and mediators shared the remaining amount.
{{/usCountry}}“On a tip off, we raided the hospital on Thursday and interrogated Shankar, who admitted to having committed the offence,” Rao said.
Apart from the girl’s biological parents, police also arrested the couple who bought the child, besides the doctor and two middlemen.
The rescued girl child was handed over to the state-run Sishu Vihar, that operates under the women development and child welfare department.
The Andhra Pradesh Child Rights Association strongly condemned the sale of the baby girl.
“Trading of girl children has become a big market in Telangana. The women and child welfare department has utterly failed in creating awareness among the people in rural areas about girl children. The department has a programme called Ooyala (cradle) to propagate the importance of grooming and educating girl children, but it never bothered to implement it,” association honorary president P Achyuta Rao said.
He demanded rehabilitation of the rescued child and cancellation of the hospital’s licence.