Child rescued, buyer arrested
The entire deal was worth about Rs 3.80 lakh
Thrissur: The tribal girl child of Attapadi, who was sold by her father on November 17, was rescued from Tripunithura, Ernakulam, on Saturday.
The police registered a case against Pradeepan Shobha couple of Thaiparambil near Tripunnithura, who had bought the two-and-a-half-year-old child, and arrested Pradeepan.
The girl was handed over to her mother Thulasi and both have been shifted to Muttikkulangara government orphanage in Palakkad.
Shamsudeen, the child's father, and Johny of Tripunithura, the middleman, were arrested on Friday based on a complaint filed by the child's mother and social activists.
Shamsudeen, originally from Alathur, Palakkad, does not belong to the tribal community and he has a seven-year-old child in his previous marriage.
Thulasi was working as a domestic servant when Shamsudeen, a bus conductor, befriended her. Shamsudeen claimed in the agreement signed with the middleman that he sold the child due to abject poverty, but tribal leaders say he had done it to buy a bike.
According to police, though Shamsudeen had sold the child to John for Rs 80,000, the entire deal was worth about Rs 3.80 lakh. The state child rights protection commission had also filed a case for child trafficking.