Vizag: Inter-state child trafficking gang busted; six infants rescued, 17 held

Visakhapatnam: Police busted an inter-state child trafficking gang and rescued six kids in Visakhapatnam. Seventeen people have been arrested so far.

Acting on specific information, the special task force caught nine men attempting to sell a five-month-old at Harbour Park near Jagannadha Swamy temple. The investigation led to the arrest of the main accused from Gajuwaka.

Commissioner of Police Shankar Brata Bagchi said, "The investigation began following missing complaints lodged in Gajuwaka and Three-town police stations. The accused used to buy children from a Delhi-based man and sold them to childless couples in Vizag and other cities for prices ranging between Rs 5 lakh - Rs 7 lakh. We have found that the gang has so far sold around 15 children. We have rescued six of them, the rest will also be soon rescued,".

Six infants rescued:

In the same case, the police detained a woman from Vijayawada for purchasing a 15-month-old baby from Delhi and attempting to sell the child in Vizag.

Further investigations led to the arrest of two more from Kadapa

The police rescued-- a 10-month-old boy at Cheemalapalle in Anakapalle district, a three-year-old girl from Narava in Vizag city, a 20-days-old girl, and a nine-month-old boy from Jeypore in Odisha.

Modus Operandi:

According to the CP, the gang targeted vulnerable groups, including minor girls, widows, and economically disadvantaged families, to illegally acquire infants. These children were sold to childless couples.

"This is a big racket. With Visakhapatnam being a primary market, the infants were sold in various cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Vijayawada," said CP.

Following this, the CP also wrote a letter to the District Collector, stressing the need for the installation of CCTV cameras, 24x7 monitoring, and the use of Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags for both mothers and newborns in Neonatal Care Units, especially in government hospitals.