GUNTUR: In an unbelievable incident, a three-month-old baby girl of Mangalagiri was sold 10 times within a week. The baby changed hands from people belonging to various places in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Police finally rescued the infant from a person from West Godavari district and reunited the girl with her mother.
Giving the case details to media persons on Tuesday, Mangalagiri DSP J Rambabu said M Manoj, a daily wager of Ganalaiahpet, has three daughters. He was addicted to drinking vice. Unable to raise his three daughters, he had decided to sell his youngest baby.
He sold the baby to one Gayatri of Nalgonda for Rs 70,000 through Nagalakshmi. Unaware of it, the baby’s grandmother lodged a missing complaint. Special police teams were set up to trace the baby.
V Ramesh was the last person to purchase the baby for Rs 2.50 lakh. A preliminary probe revealed that all those involved in the sale of baby were not part of any organised child trafficking racket. They did it to earn more money, the DSP explained.
He said 11 persons, including the girl’s father, were arrested. They included Nagalakshmi, Gayatri, B Nandu, B Bala Vardhi Raju Naik, Sk Nurjahan, A Uday Kiran, B Umadevi, P Sravani, G Vijayalakshmi and V Ramesh.
A case was registered against them under Section 372 of the IPC and the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. According to police sources, the girl’s mother remained silent though she was aware of the sale of her baby as Manoj threatened to harm her if she revealed it. She, however, was not involved in the crime.