Bengaluru: Ten people arrested in connection with the child trafficking racket that was dismantled recently, sold 250 infants in six years, police investigation has revealed.
Seven accused namely Kannan Ramaswamy, Hemalatha, Mahalakshmi, Sharanya, Sahasini, Radha, and Gomathi were arrested on November 28 and sent to judicial custody while trying to sell a 20-day-old baby boy in RR Nagar police station area. Later, on November 29, another accused Murugeswari, a fake doctor named Kevin, and a middleman Ramya were arrested.
Presently, the CCB police are interrogating the accused. Investigations have revealed that the accused have been stealing and selling babies to Karnataka and other states for many years. The accused have admitted that they have sold more than 250 children in six years. Of which, 50-60 babies were sold in Karnataka while the rest were sold in Tamil Nadu, police said. CCB police have got information about the sale of only 10 children and investigations are on to track the rest of the children, police added.
Mahalakshmi, the prime accused who operated the infant trafficking racket in Bengaluru, was a garment factory worker during 2015-17, earning Rs 8,000 a month during this period. She entered the business after a woman allegedly offered her Rs 20,000 for giving her ovum to parents who were unable to conceive. After getting such a huge amount, Mahalakshmi decided to find ovum donors and thereby earned commissions from such women. She started this racket in 2017. Mahalakshmi's interrogations are still continuing.
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