Rachakonda police bust interstate child trafficking gang, 11 rescued

Hyderabad: In a major crackdown, Medipally police under Rachakonda police station busted an inter-state gang of child sellers, rescued 11 babies and arrested 11 people on Tuesday. Among those arrested are eight women who had bought children from three accused from Delhi and Pune.

Those arrested were: Shobharani, Swapna, Shaik Saleem, Bandari Hari Hara Chethan, Bandari Padma, Balgam Saroja, Mudavath Sharadha, Mudavath Raju, Pathan Mumtaz, Jaganadam Anuradha and Yata Mamatha. Three other accused are on the run. All those arrested are residents of Telangana and neighboring Andhra Pradesh. Rachakonda Police Commissioner Tarun Joshi said the accused sold children to couples without any problems. The rescued children are between one month and two and a half months old. Nine are girls and two are boys.

Police said the accused used to have babies in Kiran and Preethi of Delhi and Kannaiah of Pune. The trio provided nearly 50 babies to those arrested. The agents of the accused sold babies to people in need in AP and Telangana for a price ranging from Rs 1.8 lakh to Rs 5.5 lakh per baby, with the help of mediators.

The racket came to light after police launched an investigation following the arrest of Shobharani, a registered medical practitioner (RMP), on May 22 for selling a child for Rs 4.5 lakh.

The police commissioner said Swapna and Shaik Saleem, who were helping Shobharani, were also arrested and two babies were saved from them.

The accused have been booked under sections 370, 372,373 r/w 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 81, 87 and 88 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. During interrogation, Shobharani revealed that she was working in coordination with Hari Hara Chetan. , who sold babies. Their interrogation revealed that the babies were supplied to them by three people from Delhi and Pune for Rs 50,000 each. Kiran, Preethi, Kannaiah and other accused are on the run. The commissioner said further investigations were underway.