Siliguri child trafficking racket: Couple arrested

Amitava Banerjee | MP | 27 Mar 2023 | Darjeeling: A couple was arrested from Patna, Bihar on Monday night in connection with the child trafficking racket that had been unearthed by the Special Operation Group of the Siliguri Metropolitan Police in an undercover operation. The racket involves IVF centres of Bihar. 

Four people, including three women, had been arrested in connection with the case from Siliguri. A seven-day-old newborn baby girl had been rescued from the arrested. The case was later transferred to the Detective Department. 

The Detective Department has taken up investigations with Inspector Mingma Lepcha as the investigation officer. On 25 March night a four member team from the Detective Department in Siliguri departed for Patna. With the help of Patna police they arrested a couple Nutan Kumari and Amit Kumar from Patna on Monday night. 

This arrested couple with connections with an IVF centre in Patna had sent the 7 day old girl child through one Prabha Devi to Siliguri to be sold. Rs 1 lakh 70 thousand had been transferred to Amit Kumar’s account as an advance for the sale by one Bina Devi. Sleuths are going through the couples bank accounts to trace such transactions. 

The role of the IVF centre is also being probed along with others involved in the racket. The mother of the 7-day-old is absconding from her residence in Patna and her cell phone is switched off. Police have launched a hunt for her. 

The CWC stated that the rescued 7-day-old girl child is in good health and under the supervision of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC,) Siliguri. Incidentally the police had received information from a confidential source that a conspiracy to sell children was going on in SIliguri. 

Accordingly, a team of SOG had started investigations. The undercover police team contacted the child racketeers posing as customers. The racketeers 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 the seven-day-old baby girl. The price was set at Rs 7 lakh 5 thousand. After everything was finalized, Prateek and Gauri were asked to come in front of North Bengal University in Siliguri 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. 

Bina along with Prabha brought the baby girl from her home in Bagdogra to the university. The police then caught the four red-handed. The four arrested from Siliguri have been identified as Bina Devi, Prateek Debnath, Gauri Bahadur Chhetri and Prabha Devi. 

Among them, Prateek and Gauri are husband and wife. They both are residents of Surya Sen Colony in Siliguri. 

Courtesy & source- Millennium  Post

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/siliguri-child-trafficking-racket-couple-arrested-513158