Infant sold for Rs 2 lakh, mom among 5 booked in Thane

KALYAN: The mother of a two-month-old infant and four others have been booked in Kalyan for allegedly selling him to a Mumbai resident for Rs 2 lakh.
The police said the infant’s mother, Sheetal More, approached them with a complaint of cheating after she received only Rs 40,000 of the promised Rs 2 lakh. When the police investigated the matter, they found that the mother herself had sold the child with the help of agents, including one of her friends from Nashik.
Besides Sheetal, the police have booked her friend, Kalpana, the agents Laxmi Kondar and Amol Valhekar and Deepak Singh, who allegedly bought the child.
The police said Sheetal, a resident of Nashik, is mother to two children, besides the infant who was sold. According to the police, since Sheetal’s financial condition was bad and her husband did not help her, Kalpana paid the Rs 8,500 bill of her maternity-related hospital expences.
It was Kalpana who advised Sheetal to sell her newborn so that all her financial problems could be resolved in one go, police said. Kalpana then allegedly took Sheetal and her child to Kalyan where she introduced her to Laxmi and Indu. The duo promised Sheetal that they would sell her child for Rs 2 lakh. They later sold the infant to Deepak, who belongs to Varanasi in UP but lives in Mumbai.
Shekhar Bagade, senior police inspector of Manpada police station in Kalyan, said, “Deepak’s brother died recently, and he, along with the child, has gone to his village in Varanasi. However, he has promised us that once he is back, he will hand over child to us.”
Kunal Gangurde, investigation officer, said, “Once we get the custody of the child, we will send him to the child welfare centre. We will also arrest all the accused involved in the case.”