A 40-year-old poverty stricken woman who attempted to sell her 3-month-old son for Rs7,000 was detained in Guindy, here on Friday.
Police said passersby spotted a woman carrying a baby that was crying endlessly, and loitering on Ambedkar Street in Bharathi Nagar in Guindy for about an hour.
When one of them, Arumugam, questioned her, she said she had come to Chennai and was looking for a job as her meagre earnings back home through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Scheme (MNREGS) was not sufficient to take care of her expenses.
She told him she could not afford to raise the baby since she had a 17-year-old daughter and a son, who was married. She said she was willing to give the baby away for Rs 7,000.
On suspicion that the baby could have been stolen, Arumugam alerted the Guindy Police who rushed to the spot and took her in for questioning.
Inquiries revealed that the woman, Maragatham of Srinivasapuram in Tiruchy, had been abandoned by her husband Chinnthambi about two months back and was struggling to raise the baby.
A woman inspector who conducted the inquiry confirmed that the baby belonged to Maragatham since the woman was lactating and could breast-feed the baby. Maragatham wanted to sell the baby as she felt the child would get a new lease of life.
Police, however, suspect that the baby could be born out of an extra-marital relationship, leading to her husband leaving her.
She was sent to a government home for women in Manappakkam along with the baby.
“Karur Police had registered a case of baby missing. We have sought the identification of the missing child. Once we get it we will be able to match it with that of the baby. So far, we have not registered any case. For now, we have sent her to a government home with the child,” a senior police official said.