Gujarat : Newborn Rescued Near Ahmedabad Airport, Four Arrested in Inter-State Child Trafficking Racket

Ahmedabad | Gujarat — Ahmedabad Crime Branch and ATS have arrested four people including a woman on the charges of running an inter-state child trafficking racket. A newborn baby was rescued from the clutches of the accused near the Ahmedabad airport. 

Sources said that the accused had purchased the newborn baby for Rs 3.60 lakh from Himmatnagar. The children were being trafficked and sold in the states of Gujarat, Telangana and UP. 

The Ahmedabad Crime Branch and Gujarati ATS received a joint tip-off, based on which the police stopped a car coming from Himmatnagar near Kotarpur of Ahmedabad airport and investigated. During the investigation, a newborn baby was found in the car. There were a total of four people in this car, including the driver. During the investigation, the police found that these four people had bought this baby from a person named Munna from Himmatnagar for Rs 3.60 lakh. It was revealed that they were going to sell this child to an agent named Nagaraj in Hyderabad.

The police have arrested Roshan Agarwal of Hyderabad, Sumit Yadav of UP, Vandana Panchal of Ahmedabad and the driver of the car, Maulik Dave. The accused had bought this child from a person named Munna in Himmatnagar. The police have arrested all four accused and immediately handed over the newborn child to the Child Health Officer. Munno and Nagaraj are absconding in this case, which is under investigation. This child trafficking racket had spread to Hyderabad.

About six months ago, the Ahmedabad Rural Police had busted a big child trafficking racket. In this case, four accused–Jayesh Rathod, Vimal Solanki, Manisha Solanki (nurse working in an IVF centre in Dholka), and Jagtap (resident of Nashik)—were arrested from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) in Maharashtra. This gang used to kidnap children from Dholka and sell them in Maharashtra. 

A poor laborer family lived in Dholka with their 7-month-old baby girl. One day, the baby girl who was sleeping next to them suddenly went missing. The parents searched a lot, but when the baby girl was not found, they finally filed a police complaint. The police started an investigation based on the CCTV footage and questioning people around. During this investigation, the police came to know that this case is not just a kidnapping, but a big child trafficking racket.

The incident also raised questions on the functioning of IVF centres and the role of the people working in such centres.