Crime Branch suspects child traffickers of running racket of kidnapping baby boys

As biological parents of boys abducted from Delhi are yet to be traced, the police are probing if they were kidnapped from hospitals or their homes before being sold illegally

The Mumbai Police Crime Branch, which is investigating the alleged child trafficking racket busted last month, is in the process of finding out whether the accused arrested in the case were also involved in the kidnapping of babies.

The racket was busted in June when the Crime Branch Unit VI arrested four women who would allegedly seek out couples looking to adopt boys and then buy newborn boys from economically disadvantaged families. The boys would be provided to the buyer couples, with the accused making a hefty profit on the transaction.

Over the course of the month, the Crime Branch arrested eight more people, including middlemen and members of the families who had bought the babies, and rescued four boys: two from Maharashtra and two from Delhi.

Crime Branch officers said their suspicion stems from the fact that while the biological parents of the two boys from Maharashtra have been found, the other two boys’ parents are yet to be traced. “The accused have revealed very little, vague details about the original families of the two boys rescued from Delhi and we suspect this is being deliberately done to hide another larger racket. We are investigating to find out whether the other two boys were kidnapped, either from hospitals or from their residences before being sold illegally,” said an officer who is part of the investigation.

The Crime Branch is seeking details of cases of child kidnapping that have occurred on the premises of public hospitals and private maternity homes as part of its investigations into this case. Police stations in Mumbai, Thane, Thane Rural, Palghar and Navi Mumbai commissionerates have been contacted and information about cases registered over the past five years has been sought, investigating officers said.

Meanwhile, all the four rescued children are under the care of the State Child Welfare Committee. The accused are in police custody. “We have taken DNA samples of the biological parents of the two children, and sent them for comparison to the Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Kalina. We are awaiting reports, and interrogating the accused to find out how many more children they have bought, kidnapped or sold so far,” the officer said. Investigations indicate they have been active for at least two-and-a-half years. “In all four cases, the accused dealt with couples who either had daughters and wanted sons, or were childless but insisted on having sons, indicating they cashed in on the patriarchal mindset in society,” he said.