Inter-state child trafficking 'gang' busted; 3 arrested

Police today claimed to have busted an alleged inter-state child trafficking gang here, which worked under the cover of an unregistered NGO based in Delhi, and arrested three persons in this connection.
Acting on a complaint of Director of Women and Child Development Department, police started investigating into the activities of the NGO, based in Sector 16 B of Dwarka. It was alleged that it was involved in illegal sale of children, mostly new-borns, DCP (South West) R A Sanjeev said.
Also, a two-year-old child was rescued while the infant was being given for adoption, police said.
A decoy couple were sent to the NGO, which had offered a male child on payment of Rs 4.20 lakh. The couple also paid a registration fee of Rs 8,000.

They were offered proper notorised documents of adoption and birth certificate of the child, showing them as their natural parents by NGO representative, identified as one Vinod Kumar, the officer said.
The decoy couple was later told that two children, a newborn and one about two years old, were available but the price was raised to Rs 5.5 lakh, which they agreed to pay.

Following this a raid was planned yesterday and the decoy couple were instructed to give a call to police after the deal of adoption was concluded, the DCP said.
On getting the signal from the couple, police moved into the NGO office and arrested Vinod Kumar, Shikha Choudhary and Anil Pandey.

The rescued child was sent to a child care home, police said.
During the interrogation, the trio revealed that they procured children either by stealing or kidnapping as well as through IVF surrogacy. Also, they prepared notorised adoption document and birth certificate to be issued in the name of adopting parents showing the baby as natural born baby, the police officer said.
Initial interrogation has so far also revealed that this inter-state gang has so far trafficked more than 20 children using the cover of the NGO that was "not registered" and also was "not listed" by the state government for adoption under CARA (Central Adoption Resource Agency) guidelines, the DCP said.

An FIR in this connection was registered at Dwarka (North) police station and further investigation is on and more arrests are likely to take place, he added.