TIRUPATTUR: Six people have been arrested over the past two days for selling a two-month-old girl to a couple in Namakkal for Rs 4.6 lakh. The list of accused includes the mother, S Jabina (35), who begs for a living and was paid only Rs 50,000.
Jabina, a resident of Tharaikaadu in Pernambut, wanted to sell her child to make ends meet, said Akshay Anil Wakhare, Tirupattur Superintendent of Police.
Her husband, Shabbir, who is disabled and unemployed, was unaware that their baby was sold. Her friend, Rashid Ahamed (50), convinced her to sell the baby so she could settle all her debts and offered to help make the sale.
On May 20, Ahamed took the child from Jabina and eventually handed it to a broker, Pughal (45), who, in turn, contacted a nurse at a private hospital in Salem identified as Uma Maheswari, said police.
Information was then passed to two more brokers, Allaudeen and Ramesh, before it reached Sathish and Harini, a childless couple in Namakkal, on May 23. According to the police, the brokers sold the child to the Namakkal couple for Rs 4.6 lakh and gave only Rs 50,000 to the mother.
Police said that when Shabbir learnt about the sale, he wanted the child back. Her husband’s pressure to get the baby returned, combined with the disappointment of having received a meagre sum for her child, pushed her to demand her baby back from Ahamed. As he delayed in returning the child, Jabina filed a complaint with the police on Saturday.
The Omerabad police have recovered the child and handed her over to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC). All six people involved in the sale are currently in police custody, except Allaudeen, who is out on bail as he recently underwent open-heart surgery. Wakhare said investigations are underway to verify whether the group has carried out similar sales in the past and if they are part of a larger network.
The CWC will hold consultations and counselling sessions with the mother after she is released, following which it will decide what is best for the child, the SP said.