The Medipally police on Friday were granted four-day custody for questioning three of the 11 accused in the interstate child selling racket unearthed earlier this week.
The police began questioning Shobharani, Hemlatha alias Swapna and Shaik Saleem — the initial three accused — who were caught on May 22 while they were delivering a baby girl.
Inspector of Medipally police R. Govinda Reddy, who is also Investigating Officer (IO) of the case, said: “The probe will also include details on the source of the children — either biological parents or other means used to source the children for sale, mode of transportation used to move them across the country, interim locations in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh where children are held before delivery among others.”
The three agents spilled the beans on the layered network of which eight more were arrested on May 27. The ‘final suppliers’ — Kiran, Preethi and Kannaiah — who are from Pune and Delhi are yet to be traced and nabbed.
Meanwhile, the Medipally police have also sought custody of the other eight, including Bandari Padma, 65, Balgam Saroja, 32, Mudavath Sharadha alias Shakeela Pathan, 39, Pathan Mumtaz alias Haseena,28, Jaganadam Anuradha, 27, Yata Mamatha, 30 along with Mudavath Raju, 39, and Bandari Hari Hara Chethan alias Hari, 34. “Once custody is granted, another round of detailed questioning will be done to identify links from their end,” the official said.
An echo from the past
A total of 14 children, with ages ranging between only a few days to 2.5 years have been moved to Shishu Vihar in Ameerpet for safe custody where efforts are underway to trace their biological parents.
Ever since the news about the network came out two days ago, distressed parents who earlier registered complaints about their missing children have been resurfacing demanding a thorough probe linked to the racket. “In the last two days, we have received at least 12-13 complaints from parents whose children aged 0-1 years went missing in the past one-year period. They reached out with the request to check if their baby was among the 14 rescued so far or to question the accused if they sold their child by showing their photo,” the official said.
“Parents are also pushing for a thorough investigation of the absconding accused, mostly in other States, to verify if their children were sold outside the State or not,” he added.
Published - May 31, 2024 07:29 pm IST
