
Seven gang members, including two women, were arrested in Patiala on Tuesday. - File photo
Patiala, December 7
As many as six infants, all under a month old, were sold by the gang busted in Patiala on Tuesday. Two infants were recovered from gang members on the spot.
While two children were sold in Ludhiana, one was sold in Pathankot. A probe is on to know about remaining three.
Initial probe suggests that the gang members had a pan Punjab network to buy and sell newborns. Sources in the Police Department confirmed that the gang members would take ‘orders’ from issueless couples who were “interested in buying a newborn baby” and then these gang members, with help of health officials in villages, identified their potential targets.
A senior police official said they offered between Rs 30,000-50,000 to parents of the infants and then made a profit of over 10 times by selling a child for Rs 5-6 lakh.
Confirming that more infants had been sold, SSP Varun Sharma said the probe revealed that they had not stolen the infants, but bought them from parents. “However, we cannot rule out the possibility of the gang’s involvement in stealing kids from hospitals. All such recent cases are under scanner in which women had taken away newborn babies from government hospitals,” he said. The Patiala police arrested seven persons, including two women, allegedly involved in selling and buying of newborn babies.