KOLKATA: West Bengal Police on Sunday arrested a couple based out of Panihati in North 24 Parganas district for selling their six-month-old child to arrange funds to buy alcohol.
The grandfather of the child, who is believed to have acted as the middleman in the matter, has also been arrested by the cops. The police are not ruling out the involvement of a child trafficking racket in the entire matter. Moreover, the police are yet to rescue the child.
The arrested persons have been identified as Jaideb Chowdhury (father), Sathi Chowdhury (mother) and Kanai Chowdhury (grandfather). They are being questioned currently to know about the person to whom they have sold their child.
The local people brought the matter to the police after they found the child missing for quite some time. Whenever the neighbours enquired about the matter, the couple answered that the child was at a relative’s place. The neighbours smelt some foul play and brought it to the notice of the local councilor, who informed the police.
The cops will present the arrested trio at a district court on Sunday only and will seek police custody for them. “Our prime aim is to extract information from them in the matter so that we can carry forward our investigation and rescue the child,” an investigating officer said.
The local people informed the cops that the couple used to be intoxicated almost throughout the day and often they had severe quarrels within the family and at times with the neighbours. But none could imagine that urge for alcohol would push them into taking such a nasty step of selling their own child.