Newborn boy, sold for Rs 2 lakh by dad, reunited with mom in Vyasarpadi

CHENNAI: A four-day-old son, whom the father sold to a childless couple, has been reunited with the biological mother in the city. The couple who had bought the newborn handed him over at Vyasarpadi police station on Wednesday.

The police had earlier arrested the newborn’s father Sathya Das for selling the child and on Wednesday arrested three mediators and Mahendran (43), for buying the child through brokers.

The police have launched a hunt for the absconded woman broker, identified as Kumudha, who allegedly took Rs 8 lakh from the couple – Mahendran and Revathi, who got married 15 years ago and remained childless.

The police said Mahendran and his wife Revathi, who has been living at Kattu Kollai village near Vellore, voluntarily appeared before the Vyasarpadi police with the newborn after they came to know about the child’s missing news through television channels and newspapers.

During the probe, Mahendran told police that he approached Kumudha and told her about their plan to adopt a child from any couple who is struggling to raise their child. Kumudha promised him to find a newborn by convincing the child’s parents.

Kumudha had collected Rs 8 lakh from Mahendran but offered Rs 4 lakh to another woman named Bhavani in Chennai, who tipped her off about a poor couple, Sathya Das and Shyamala, of Malligaipoo Colony in Vyasarpadi.

Bhavani approached two other accomplices, Ganesh and Saranya, and contacted Sathya Das and struck a deal for Rs 3 lakh. Ganesh and Saranya took the amount from Bhavani and posing as a childless couple, they negotiated with Sathya Das and offered him Rs 2 lakh for his newborn son, as he already had two daughters and was struggling to raise the children.

Ganesh and Saranya gave Sathya Das Rs 25,000 as an advance during one of his meetings at the RSRM government maternity hospital in Royapuram.

Shyamala delivered the baby boy on Aug 6, and her newborn son went missing on Aug 10. As her husband dodged when she inquired about her son, Shyamala lodged a police complaint on Aug 14 after she returned to her home in Vyasarpadi. The police registered a case and arrested Sathya Das.

During questioning, Sathya Das told police that he had sold the child to couple Ganesh and Saranya, who in turn handed over the child to Bhavani. Interrogations revealed that a couple from Vellore had collected the child from Bhavani.