The Plant Site police here busted a child trafficking racket by arresting seven persons, including five women, in this connection. Later in the day, all the accused were forwarded to court.
The nabbed accused were identified as Seema Agrawal from Janata Niwas lane, Sarita Agrawal, Nita Agrawal from DAV School lane, Asha Devi from Gurudwara road, Nikhil Agrawal from DAV School lane, Sumit Agrawal from Power House road and Sheela Agrawal from Bishra Dahara road.
Nita Agrawal and son Nikhil and Sarita Agrawal and son Sumit were the main accused.
Police said the accused were selling a girl child for Rs 40,000 and a boy child for Rs 4 lakh in Jharkhand and Raigarh of Chhattisgarh.
After contacting poverty-stricken families in Rourkela, the accused used to lure them with money and buy children.
Three days back, Sangeeta and Nita contacted one Seema Khuntia staying near the Vaishnodevi temple at Timber Colony. They lured her with money and persuaded her to sell her one-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter. Seema agreed to hand over the child as the accused also promised her to facilitate better living for the kid.
As per the plan, Seema along with the child reached the Idga Ground on Mahtab Road at around 8 pm on Monday and found Sarita, Seema Agarwal and another youth there. As the woman who contacted Seema Khuntia was not present, she refused to hand over the child initially. Later, she agreed after much persuasion.
When Seema asked for the promised amount, the two women asked her to reach another location. When she did not find the duo there, she lodged a complaint at the Plant Site police station. After preliminary investigations, police arrested the seven accused while another managed to give a slip.