Madurai City Police have arrested the prime accused, Sivakumar, and his associate, Madarsha, in connection with the sale of two children from a home for elderly, women and children, in Theni district on Saturday.
Commissioner of Police Prem Anand Sinha said that the accused were on the run for the last few days and a State-wide alert was issued to nab them. “He had gone to Chennai and Bengaluru. Our officers tracked him in Coimbatore and alerted the police across the State,” he said. On Saturday, his vehicle was intercepted at Bodi when he was trying to flee to Kerala. With this, all the nine accused in the case of selling two children - a boy and girl - without the knowledge of two women, who were staying in the home run by Idayam Trust, have been nabbed.
Sivakumar, the director of the trust, along with Madarsha, had produced fake documents to show that one of the child had died due to COVID-19.
Apart from two couples who had bought the children, the police have arrested some middlemen involved in the racket. This included one Selvi, a volunteer who was manning the help desk at Madurai Collectorate, for having misguided a childless couple to the home.
Another case
Meanwhile, the city police have busted another illegal adoption racket and rescued three siblings who were given to three different childless couples. The Commissioner said that the investigation by the police into a complaint from Child Welfare Committee revealed that not one, but three children of the mother, were sold to different couples.
“All three children have been rescued and investigation is under way,” he said.
The police have booked the three couples and one Saravanan, who had helped in getting a false birth certificate for a child with the names of adopted parents as the biological parents.
