Three months after the Mumbai police busted an illegal child trafficking racket, the ordeal of the nine kids rescued is far from over.
Two of them are lodged with the Bal Asha Trust, an adoption agency and children’s home, and the rest are being looked after by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
The police has managed to identify the biological parents of only two kids so far. They have again been sent for adoption to the state’s nodal trust for adoption.
A police source claimed that the accused had created forged identities of the children’s biological parents, making it difficult to trace them.
The officials confirmed that they had traced a biological parent of one of the rescued children in Hyderabad. He will be soon brought to Mumbai for interrogation.
Meanwhile, the police continues investigations to trace more children and their biological parents. The authorities are set to file chargesheet against 35 accused arrested.
As per the Mumbai Crime Branch, they received information that a woman had sold her child through Sheetal Ware, one of the accused. Ware sold the child to a family in Ratnagiri for 2lakh. This she could do with the help of Sharad Maroti Devar, Dr Sanjay Khandare and Vandana Pawar.
Further probe revealed that Ware received Rs20,000 in the said deal. Meanwhile, Devar, who acted as middleman, worked for the donor of Dhanashri Fertility Agency and as such knew Dr Khandare. Khandare got him introduced to Pawar whose relative needed a child. In this sale Khandare recieved Rs50,000.
After this the police went on to rescue nine children and arrest 35 people. Police sources also confirmed that most of the ‘target’ places from where children are sourced, “even kidnapped”, include Telangana, Hyderabad, Secunderabad, and Visakhapatnam, where parents are assured hefty amounts (more than Rs2.5 lakh going up to Rs5 lakh per child) in return.
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