Child trafficking racket busted, 4 held

MP | 26 Mar 2023 | Siliguri: In an undercover operation, the Special Operation Group (SOG) of Siliguri Metropolitan Police busted a child trafficking racket involving IVF centres in Bihar. Four people, including three women, have been arrested in connection with the case. 

A seven-day-old newborn baby girl has been rescued. The investigation has been handed over to the Detective Department (DD). The arrested have been identified as Veena Devi, Prateek Debnath, Gauri Bahadur Chhetri and Prabha Devi. Among them, Prateek and Gauri are husband and wife and are residents of Surya Sen Colony in Siliguri. 

The arrested were produced at the Siliguri court on Sunday and have been remanded to eight days of police custody. 

“We had information that a group of people have been selling children in Siliguri. Accordingly, our team conducted an undercover operation posing as customers. We have arrested four people. The investigation has been handed over to the Detective Department (DD) of Siliguri,” said Subhendra Kumar, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP). Sources said that the police had received information from a confidential source that a conspiracy to sell children was going on. 

Accordingly, a team of SOG started investigations. The undercover police team contacted the agents posing as customers. The agents showed several pictures of children. Babies from six months to newborns and even one-year-olds were being sold. They had set the selling price of the babies from Rs 6 lakh to 10 lakh. After getting the details, the undercover policeman, posing as a customer wanted to buy a seven-day-old baby girl. The price was set at Rs 7 lakh 5 thousand. 

After everything was finalised, Prateek and Gauri were asked to come in front of North Bengal University on Saturday. The police team went to the sellers along with a female constable posing as a babysitter. 

The accused wanted to see the money first. The amount was shown by the police. Thereafter, Gauri called Veena and asked her to bring the child. Veena along with Prabha brought the baby girl from her home in Bagdogra to the university. The police then caught the four red-handed. 

The police came to know that the baby girl was brought from an IVF centre in Bihar. About Rs 2 lakh was transferred from Veena’s account to an agent’s account in Bihar. Prabha Devi brought the baby girl to Siliguri. The child is currently admitted to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. 

Courtesy & source- Millennium Post

 https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/child-trafficking-racket-busted-4-held-512987