Child trafficking case: Two woman agents who targetted childless couples arrested

PALANPUR: The Local Crime Branch (LCB) of Banaskantha, investigating an inter-state child trafficking racket, has arrested three more persons — two main women agents of the ‘Murugan Gang' and the a man who sold his newborn girl — taking the total number of arrests in the case to 10.

Based on technical surveillance, LCB teams tracked the network to Telangana and arrested two key women — Rani and Shivarani — from Secunderabad.

Based on the interrogation of the seven people arrested earlier, police obtained the names of Rani and Shivarani, both residents of West Marredpally, Secunderabad, and nabbed them using technical surveillance.

"They targeted couples unable to conceive, especially those visiting IVF centres in Hyderabad. They sold trafficked newborn babies to such couples at high prices. The agents earned commissions ranging from Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 per child. Babies were often trafficked within 24–48 hours of birth from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, and other states," said Prashant Sumbe, Banaskantha SP.

"The man, who is from Danta, had sold his five-day-old girl to the gang for Rs 2.8 lakh. A separate offence has been registered in this case as well as in a similar case in Amirgadh," said Digvijaysinh Rathod, LCB police inspector.

The kingpin of the racket, Telangana-based Bodasu Nagaraju alias Murugan, has also been arrested.

Police said the syndicate had a well-established network in Hyderabad and Telangana's Sirpur-Kagaznagar region, where agents identified prospective buyers and facilitated illegal adoptions.

A detailed investigation was launched after the rescue of a four-year-old kidnapped boy from a Rajasthan family near Dhanpura on April 6. The subsequent arrests later exposed the deeply entrenched racket.