Police rescue infant, mother refuses to take it back

The Jajpur police, at the direction of the Orissa High Court, rescued the baby from Nuapatana village after raids in the Choudwar area, inspector-in-charge of Jajpur Road police station Aswini Kumar Sahu said.

The police handed over the 17-month-old baby, sold two weeks ago, to its mother, a daily wage earner, as directed by the high court, but she refused to take him back, Sahu said.

"The baby boy is fine. We first handed him over to his mother. But, she refused to take him. We then handed him over to the Child Welfare Committee at Jajpur town," he said.

A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice V Gopala Gowda and Justice B K Mishra on Friday took suo moto cognizance of media reports on the sale of the baby boy by his mother.

Twenty-year-old Rakhi Patra of Mundamala village in Jajpur district sold her son to a man named Babula Behera in Cuttack district on September 17.

Rakhi's husband Manoj Patra, also a daily wage earner, was arrested two months ago in a theft case and is in Ragadi jail in Jajpur district.