Delhi's Dark 'Baby Bazaar': Baby Boys Sold For Rs 8 Lakh, Girls Half The Price

Imagine a child born in Rajasthan who is trafficked to Delhi and sold to another couple in Haryana for a few lakhs - all within a span of a few days. A child's life and destiny decided by her parents' circumstances and the greed of criminals.

Delhi police have busted a gang of traffickers who "procured" newborns, just four to five days old, from underprivileged couples, and sold them to the childless couples in the national Capital for a few lakh rupees.

Main characters in the grim tale: Traffickers, childless couples and a hospital owner.

Price Tag On Infants

Girl Child: Three to four lakh rupees

Male Child: Six to eight lakh rupees 

How The Racket Was Busted

A tip from a resident of Paharganj in  Central Delhi on a woman who was seen in the area at regular intervals with a different infant each time set the Delhi's Police mission in motion. 

Cops scanned CCTV footage from the area and also activated human intelligence. After days of pursuit, police zeroed in on the woman and got cracking. It became clear from the police intelligence that this woman, Jyoti alias Kamlesh, was involved in child trafficking. 

The Decoy Deal 

Police established contact with Kamlesh on the pretext of a deal. A woman police officer posed as a decoy customer looking to buy a child. Meeting was set and deal was struck for a child. Token amount of Rs 20,000 was agreed on. Kamlesh delivered an infant to the police decoy, and was arrested on the spot on June 5.

Her interrogation baffled cops and set them on an investigation that unraveled a multi-state racket where infants were being bought/stolen from poor couples in Rajasthan and Gujarat and were being sold to childless couples in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. 

Delhi Police personnel with the arrested accused

Kamlesh's sustained interrogation led police to two of her accomplices - Shalu and Lalit - and later to Pratibha and Vipin, who were involved in procurement of infants and striking deals for sale.

Pratibha and Vipin were caught while they were on their way to meet the person who procured infants to put in the market. Police found nearly Rs 3 lakh on the Pratibha and Vipin. 

Two weeks and sustained interrogation later, cops recovered 5 such infants, all under a month old. 

The big questions staring the cops now were:

Where did these infants come from?
Who sourced them? 
Where were they kept in the Capital? And
Who were they sold to?

Hospital That Was The Trafficking Hotspot

Days of interrogation of the arrested accused led the police to a hospital in West Delhi. Hira's Multispeciality Hospital in Begumpur in Rohini. This hospital has emerged as the nerve centre of the entire racket and its owner Dr Viveki the lynchpin. 

DCP, Central District, Rohit Rajbir Singh, said that the traffickers kept infants at Dr Viveki's hospital till they were delivered to the childless couples. 

"Dr Viveki is the lynchpin of this entire racket. She helped forge documents related to the kids. Birth certificates, delivery documents, invoices were all forged at her hospital to make it appear that the kids were born here," Singh added.

Hira's Multispeciality Hospital in Delhi Rohini was the nerve centre of the racket

The Rate Of A Newborn

Police investigation has shown that a girl child was procured for about a lakh rupees and was being sold for around three to four lakhs, whereas a male child was being bought for about two lakh rupees and sold for anything between six to eight lakhs. 

DCP Singh says that the deals were being struck at Dr Viveki's hospital. She acted as an intermediary between the couples seeking to buy a child and the traffickers. 

The Supply Side

Based on inputs from the people in custody, police arreested Sababhai Ghamar alias Kalia from Sabarkantha in Gujarat. Originally from Udaipur, Ghamar, according to the police, would 'bought' infants from underprivileged couples in Pali in Rajasthan, and Sabarkanth to sell them to childless couples via Dr Viveki's hospital in Delhi. 

Police are trying to reach the biological parents of the recovered infants to figure out if they sold the kids willfully or were coerced into it or if the kids were stolen. DCP Singh says that the families will also be made accused if they sold the kids to the traffickers out of their own will. 

Probe has found that Ghamar and gang have trafficked at least 30 infants in the last one year. These kids were sold to couples from Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. Police have traced and apprehended a couple - Sunny Arora and Ritu Arora, from Panipat in Haryana. Another couple from Gwalior in MP has also been apprehended for buying an infant from this gang. These families, police say, will also be made accused in the case.

Arranged 'Twins' Sold For Rs 9 Lakh

In an instance, narrated by DCP Singh, the gang duped a customer couple who wanted a male child. Since the gang at that moment had a "spare" girl child that they wanted to sell off quickly, they offered a girl and a male child to the couple presenting them as twins, for a consolidated price of nine lakhs. The infants were not twins and were brought from different places. 

Police say that among those arrested, Kamlesh and Pratibha were involved in an earlier trafficking cases too. Pratibha also worked as a lab technician with the Hira's Multispecialty Hospital and some other labs. She, according to police, was the link between Dr Viveki's hospital and the trafficking syndicate. 

Another arrested person, Omwati, worked as a house-help in Gurugram and was part of the infants "procurement" network.

DCP Singh specially mentioned three women cops - Sub Inspectors Pragati and Yamini, and Head Constable Sushma - for their key role in bursting the racket. 

The Rescued Infants

Five rescued infants were sent to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) are currently being looked after at its Palna centre. The CWC acts as the sole competent authority to manage the well-being of "Children in Need of Care and Protection". It receives rescued children and ensures their immediate shelter. The committee directs the placement of children in specialised adoption agencies, children's homes, or declaring them legally free for adoption.