A day after the arrest of three persons, who allegedly attempted to buy a 42-day-old male baby for ₹ 2.5 lakh and sell it to a childless couple, the Karumathampatty police in Coimbatore on Thursday arrested the parents of the child.
The police said that Kannan (25) and his wife Jothi (23), natives of Madurai, were arrested from a bus stand in Erode district on Thursday morning.
The duo had also allegedly sold their first baby to a childless couple, the authenticity of which was yet to be confirmed, said the investigators. On Wednesday, the police had arrested Jahir Hussain (33), an autorickshaw driver from Madukkarai in Coimbatore, Haseena (27) and Kalyani (35) from Surampatti in Erode.
The police said that the two women, Haseena already arrested in connection with the trafficking of a baby at Rasipuram in Namakkal earlier this year, were bargaining over the amount to be paid with Hussain who tried to buy the baby for a childless couple he knew.
The three persons were picked up by the police from a place at Pappampatti near Sulur on Tuesday evening after their bargain turned to a quarrel. They were arrested on Wednesday.
According to the police, the parents of the child were picked up from the bus stand in Erode when they were allegedly attempting to escape to Madurai. The investigators have alerted the Madurai police about the incident and check the background of couple. The baby was handed over to the District Child Welfare Committee on Wednesday and shifted to the neonatal ward of the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital.
