Hyderabad: Police Bust Baby Seller Gang, Rescue 11 Infants

Hyderabad: The Medipally police have arrested a gang of 11 human traffickers from the state, AP, Maharashtra and Delhi, who were involved in the trade of over 50 babies and rescued 11 infants.

The police got the lead about the human trafficking gang when they with the help of Arun Jyoti Foundation rescued an infant on May 22 by arresting a 48-year-old-woman, who was trying to sell the baby to a customer for Rs.4.5 lakh at her house at Ramakrishna Nagar in Peerzadiguda, near Uppal.

During interrogation, the accused Aita Shoba Rani said she had got the infant from Andhra Pradesh through Chinta Swapna, Raju and Saleem Pasha. The police arrested them the same day.

The rescued baby was sent to Sishu Vihar and the accused were booked for human trafficking, Medipally sub-inspector Prabhakar Reddy said.

Shoba Rani told the police that one Bandari Hari Hara Chetan from AP sold babies through Swapna, Shaik Salem and Raju. She identified the other gang members as Bandari Padma, Balgam Saroja, Mudavath Shraddha alias Shakeela, Phatan Mumtaz alias Haseena, Jaganadam Anuradha of Vijayawada and Yata Mamatha of Charlapally.

On interrogating them, the police found that the gang was getting babies from a brother-sister duo of Kiran and Preethi, who are the natives of Delhi, and Kannaiah of Pune. All of them have since been arrested

The trio had supplied over 50 stolen babies to the accused for sale in the Telugu states. The price for each baby ranged from Rs.1.8 lakh to Rs.5.5 lakh. The gang would get a commission of Rs.50,000 to Rs.1 lakh, a police officer said.

So far the police have rescued 11 babies from custody of the accused in coordination with the Child Welfare Committee and two of them were sent to Shishu Vihar.

The police said Bandari Padma had been arrested by the Ghatkesar police for selling babies; and Balgam Saroja by the Munagala police in Suryapet district. Mudavath Sharada, who is absconding, was earlier arrested by the Mumbai police, AP police and Warangal police for human trafficking.

The accused were produced before the court, which sent them on a remand to the Charlapally central jail.