Police on Tuesday night arrested a childless couple and a social worker for allegedly buying an infant from a poor woman at Angalakurichi village in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu.
According to the police, a man, identified as Rajesh Kumar (43), his wife Gokila (42) had bought the baby for Rs 80,000 with the help of social worker Nirmala (41). The couple belongs to Annapuram near Podanur while the social worker is from Puliyankandi near Aliyar. The couple failed to conceive, therefore they decided to buy a baby, police said.
Karuppthal, a resident of Angalakurichi, was approached by the Nirmala after she was blessed with a son at Aliyar primary health centre on August 15. She agreed to sell off her infant child due to her poor economic condition, police said.
Nirmala took away the baby from Karuppthal on September 6 after paying her Rs 80,000. She handed over the baby to the couple in Annapurna. Some locals at Angalakurichi, after learning about the incident, alerted Childline officials.
Subsequently, a childline official questioned Karuppthal who admitted to having sold off the infant boy as she was finding it difficult to make her ends meet. Thereafter a complaint was registered with the Aliyar Police and the trio was arrested for child trafficking.
In another incident, a labourer allegedly sold off his three-month-old daughter to a childless couple for Rs 1 lakh in Karnataka’s Chikkaballapur district last month. He purchased a new mobile phone and a motorcycle with the money.
As the man went on a spending spree after selling off the infant, his neighbours grew suspicious. Later, they noticed that the baby girl was missing and informed the police. Thereafter, police conducted inquiries and found that he had sold the baby to a childless couple. Officials rescued the baby and sent it to an adoption centre.
