Namakkal: An alleged racket in child trafficking in Namakkal district involving a Rasipuram-based retired government hospital nurse that came to light through an audio clip that went viral recently, took a serious turn on Friday with the district police arrested three persons and remanding them to judicial custody.
Police arrested Amudha aka Amudhavalli, 50, of Kattukotaai area in Rasipuram, a nursing assistant of the government hospital there who took voluntary retirement in 2012, her husband, Ravichandran, 54, who works as office assistant in Rasipuram urban cooperative bank, and an ambulance driver Murugesan, from Kollimalai in the district, in connection with the child trafficking racket that has been allegedly going on for several years.
Following preliminary investigation of the audio clip in which Amudha purportedly was negotiating with a person for selling a baby from Dharmapuri, the Namakkal district deputy director of public health gave a complaint to the Rasipuram All Women police station.
Based on the complaint, police registered cases under IPC sections 370 (2)(4), 420, 471, and 109, besides under sections 80, 81, of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015, sources said. Four more special police teams have been constituted to thoroughly investigate the case.
Preliminary investigations revealed that Amudha, had been allegedly involved in buying and selling about ten children, from Salem, Dharmapuri, Tiruchengode, Omalur and Kollimalai areas.
Babies from poverty-stricken families and kids born to deserted women were mainly sourced through brokers and sub-brokers to be allegedly "sold" to issueless couples who genuinely sought to adopt them.
Some financial transactions running to several lakh of rupees were also noticed in the bank account of her husband, Ravichandran, which led to his arrest today, police said. Further, the ambulance driver had also been allegedly roped into the racket in a recent "sale" of a girl child from Kollimalai area, sources added.
Speaking about the issue, Namakkal district SP, Mr R Arularasu said a detailed probe has been ordered and efforts were on to trace other brokers and sub-brokers allegedly involved in this racket. Efforts were also on to identify the biological parents of the children involved in this buy-sell network, he said, adding, action would be taken against all those involved in the case. The birth certificate records in private hospitals in Rasipuram and the birth certificates issued by the municipal body in the last five years were also being verified, he added.
