Mother among four held for selling 10-month-old baby for illegal adoption

A 10-month-old baby from Chennai sold illegally to a couple in Andhra Pradesh was rescued by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) members and police have arrested four people including the mother and an elderly woman who purchased the baby for her son.

The accused were identified as M Vijayalakshmi, 36, the child’s mother, from Kannagi Nagar, P Navaneetham, 69, and her son P Srinivasan, 47, from Tirupathi in Andhra Pradesh and S Thangam, 43, an agent in selling babies from Red Hills. Police have launched a hunt for at least three people who acted as agents for selling the baby.

The Child Welfare Committee in Tirupati rescued the child from Navaneetham 10 months ago based on information that the child did not belong to her. The Tirupati police let her off with a warning and handed over the child to CWC in the city since the baby was purchased from here.