Bihar woman, daughter held in Coimbatore for abducting kids, selling them to childless couples
Both the rescued children were produced before the Child Welfare Committee and handed over to a home for children
Poonam Devi and Neha Kumari
COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore rural police on Monday arrested a woman and her daughter from Bihar in connection with the child trafficking racket.
Already, a couple and a farmer, who bought the baby, were arrested by police. Acting on a tip to child line on 3 June, the Karumathampatti All Women Police arrested a couple, M Mahesh Kumar, 34 and his wife Anjalikumari, 24, both natives of Bihar and running a hotel in Sulur on charges of abducting and selling a two year old boy to a truck driver in Andhra Pradesh.
During inquiry, the couple claimed that a neighbor had abandoned their week old baby boy two years ago. Special teams of police traced and rescued the boy from the truck driver in Andhra Pradesh.
Further, it came to light that the couple had also abducted and sold a girl baby from Bihar to one D Vijayan, 48, a farmer from Lakshminaickenpalayam in Sulur for Rs 2.5 lakh. Police said Vijayan bought the girl baby as his child went missing several years ago.
Following this, police arrested Vijayan and inquiries with him revealed the involvement of Anjalikumari’s mother H Poonam Devi, 61 and sister H Neha Kumari, 21 from Darbhanga district in Bihar.
They claimed to have got the girl baby from a poor family claiming to have it with them, but sold it to the farmer. Both the woman and her daughter were booked for offences under IPC sections 370 for trafficking and 81 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. Both the rescued children were produced before the Child Welfare Committed and handed over to a home for children.
With this, so far five persons have been arrested in the child selling racket and further inquiries are on to crack down the entire network.