Child trafficking racket busted, 4 in police net

The Delhi Police busted an inter-state child trafficking racket with the arrest of four traffickers and rescued two infants, officials said on Monday.

“This was an organised syndicate involved in kidnapping infants and supplying them to childless couples through forged adoption documents. The meticulous efforts of our team helped crack the case and rescue the victims,” DCP (Railways) KPS Malhotra said.

The case came to light when a two-and-a-half-year-old boy was kidnapped from the main hall of the New Delhi railway station on the night of October 17 last year. His mother, who was sleeping at the station, lodged a complaint the next day.

The CCTV footage revealed an unidentified woman taking the child away in an auto-rickshaw, another official said. The auto driver was traced and he confirmed that he had dropped her near the Badarpur-Faridabad border.

During investigation, the police came to know that a similar incident had occurred on July 31, 2023 wherein a three-year-old boy was kidnapped from the ticket counter hall at the New Delhi railway station. The police re-examined the CCTV footage and found the same woman abducting the child. The auto driver involved in that case had also dropped the suspect near Badarpur.

The breakthrough came on January 21 this year when a woman reported that her four-month-old infant had been kidnapped from the food court waiting hall at the New Delhi railway station on the night of January 21. The police launched an intensive search analysing over 700 CCTV camera feeds, cross-referencing locations and telecom data to track down the suspect.

“We found a pattern in all three cases and traced the suspects to Faridabad,” official said.

Based on technical analysis and human intelligence operations, the police conducted simultaneous raids at multiple locations and arrested four individuals.

The prime accused was the woman seen in CCTV footage kidnapping the children. Her husband, Suraj, handled financial transactions and coordinated with buyers. Another woman, who worked as a clerk for an advocate, was responsible for forging adoption documents, the official said.

While the third woman, a self-proclaimed doctor, coordinated with adoptive families by misrepresenting the abducted children as abandoned. “She used her medical background and IVF centre contacts for targeting families,” it added.

An official said, “The accused created forged adoption papers and medical records to mislead authorities and adoptive families. They frequently changed their mobile numbers and used coded communication to avoid detection.”

The traffickers targeted unattended children in crowded public places, particularly railway stations, and used fake documentation to facilitate illegal adoptions. The investigation revealed that childless couples, unaware of the illegal nature of the transactions, were misled into adopting the kidnapped children.

During the operation, the police recovered the two kidnapped children. One was found in Loni, Ghaziabad, while another was rescued from Paharganj, Delhi. Both had been handed over to couples who had unknowingly adopted them illegally.