Police said three women have also been arrested, including the mother of a newborn, who allegedly sold the baby for Rs 50,000 – Rs 60,000. (Representational)Targeting young women dealing with ‘unwanted’ pregnancies, a 40-year-old doctor and owner of a Delhi-based private hospital has been running a baby selling racket for years, said police Tuesday, adding that the accused would dissuade women from aborting and lure them into selling the child.
The Delhi Police busted the racket and arrested Dr Sanjay Malik who runs Sanjay Global Hospital in Jahangirpuri. The doctor, in connivance with Asha workers and auxiliary nurse midwives (ANM), was allegedly selling a 31-days-old baby when police caught him. Police said three women have also been arrested, including the mother of a newborn, who allegedly sold the baby for Rs 50,000 – Rs 60,000.
DCP (Rohini) Pranav Tayal and his team received a tip-off and sent a head constable (HC) to pose as a parent in need of a child.
“On Monday, a raiding team was sent to Rohini sector 3 where the head constable and informer met two women, aged 43 and 25, who said they will help him. They were then joined by the mother, who was carrying her girl. They negotiated a deal of Rs 1.1 lakh. After paying an initial amount of Rs 10,000, the deal was finalised. The accused had already sent the photo of the baby to the HC, who signalled to us and we caught all three women and rescued the baby,” said DCP Tayal.
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The mother revealed that she was unmarried and worked as a domestic worker. Her boyfriend left her after she got pregnant. She went to Dr Malik’s hospital to get an abortion in her last trimester as she didn’t want to reveal the pregnancy to her family. A source said, “The woman lives with her parents, six sisters and a brother. She was worried that they will abandon her, so she went to the hospital to get an abortion. However, Dr Malik allegedly persuaded her to sell the baby. The doctor and his associates even let the woman stay with them for two months to hide the pregnancy from the family.”
On July 27, the woman gave birth to a girl at the hospital. The women associates started looking for a family for her. “The women live in unauthorised colonies and target single women with unwanted pregnancies. The women and doctor lure women to sell the baby to families in need of a child,” added the source.
DCP Tayal said this isn’t the gang’s first case as Dr Malik has confessed to selling 5-6 babies in and around Delhi. A team led by ACP Vipin Bhatia found the photos of newborn babies on Malik’s phone and found the nexus is larger as the doctor works with other Asha workers and ANMs to target more women. “The gang would search for women at nearby hospitals and pathology labs. One of the women has more contacts because she was working at a Jamia Nagar-based hospital for 5-6 years, and the other would help get customers in her area who are ready to pay for a child,” added the DCP.
Police said Dr Malik is a history-sheeter and would forge birth documents to make the gang look ‘legitimate’. In 2000, he was arrested for running a different hospital (with the same name) for conducting sex determination tests for couples.
Police said he was later released on bail but continued to do the same job. Police will write to the medical association and other authorities to look into the case. “He also has a case in Haryana’s Ganaur. We are checking if he was involved in similar activities there,” said an officer.