Mumbai baby selling racket: One month on, IVF clinics, abortion centres still untouched

Moreover, neither Wadala TT police officials, nor senior IPS officers were willing to comment on why no action was not initiated against the IVF clinics, illegal abortion centres and doctors

It has been a month since Wadala TT police station arrested 29-year-old Julia Fernandes and her 30-year-old accomplice Huma Dalvi, but little progress has been made in the case’s investigation.

Fernandes was arrested on September 22 after a police team raided a slum pocket in Wadala and rescued a 14-day-old boy Fernandes was planning to sell.

The interrogation of the accused led the police to doctors, IVF clinics and illegal abortion centres, which had an understanding with Fernandes and Dalvi, who were suspected to be the key agents in what looked like an international child trafficking racket, to help them procure newborns. But since then little progress has been made in the case, with police officials in a quagmire if they should go ahead and take action against the clinics and doctors involved.

In fact, the racket also involves the proprietor of a chain of 5-star hotels who had bought a child from Fernandes. The proprietor too has not been questioned by the police yet. The extent of the racket was suspected to be international after Dalvi told the police that they had sent a 19-year-old girl, who was two months pregnant, to Indonesia to give the baby to a couple there.

Moreover, neither Wadala TT police officials, nor senior IPS officers were willing to comment on why action was not initiated against the IVF clinics, illegal abortion centres and doctors.