Couple who sold children for buying drugs arrested, six others held for trafficking

Mumbai, Nov 24 (PTI) The arrest of a couple who allegedly sold their children for getting money to buy drugs has led to the busting of an interstate child trafficking gang, Mumbai Police said on Friday.

A total of eight persons have been held in the case and the gang is suspected to have been involved in the sale of at least eight children, said an official of the crime branch.

An addict couple who recently sold their two children for buying drugs were arrested from D N Nagar area on Thursday, he said.

They had sold their two-year-old son for Rs 60,000 and the two-month-old daughter for Rs 14,000, said the official.

Police rescued the baby girl by arresting a 42-year-old man while the boy remained untraceable, he said. The girl was handed over to the Child Welfare Committee.

A local court remanded the couple in police custody till November 29.

During the probe, Unit-9 of the Mumbai crime branch on Friday arrested five more persons, alleged members of an interstate child trafficking gang, the official said.

The gang members confessed to have facilitated the sale of at least eight children from Mumbai, the neighbouring Palghar district as well as the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, he said, adding that further probe was underway. PTI DC KRK