ROURKELA: Plant Site Police on Monday arrested seven persons including five women on charges of abducting a baby girl recently. The accused are identified as Seema Agarwal (45), Sunita Agarwal (50), Nita Agarwal (25), Asha Devi (38), Sheela Gupta (38), Nikhil Agarwal (25) and Sumit Agarwal (21). The baby was rescued from the possession of the accused persons on Sunday.
The arrests were made on the basis of a complaint filed by one Seema Khuntia who alleged that her 18-month-old granddaughter was abducted. Police said the seven accused belong to the Marwari community here and are possibly part of a child trafficking racket.
According to the complainant, two of the accused women had got in touch with her over phone and offered her Rs 3 lakh for male child and Rs 40,000 for female child. Since Seema was in need of money, she went with her granddaughter to a place near the Id-gah, three days back.
There, two women and two men took over the baby’s custody and asked Seema to come to the nearby Janata Niwas Lane to take payment of Rs 40,000. But the accused apparently fled with the baby without the payment prompting Seema to reach out to police.
Plant Site IIC Subrat Mehera on Monday evening said seven of the eight accused persons in the racket have been arrested. Another accused Sangita Agarwal is at large and will be nabbed soon. Further investigation is underway, he said. However, no complaints have been registered against Seema, who, lured by money, attempted to sell her granddaughter.