The Crime Branch of Delhi Police has busted a “well-entrenched” human trafficking racket and arrested a nursing home owner along with a nursing student. A two-month-old girl, who was being sold by them, was rescued.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime and Railways), Ravindra Yadav said that the accused have been identified as Sumit, a resident of northeast Delhi’s GTB Enclave and Niharika (26), a resident of Chhatarpur in South Delhi
Sumit is dropout of Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS). Niharika, whose father was a security guard in a private factory in loni, completed her Class 12 through correspondence and is pursuing a nursing course from Subharati Medical College in Meerut.
Investigations revealed that Sumit (28), the owner of the nursing home in loni, Ghaziabad was involved in trafficking of newborns along with a Public Relation Officer (PRO) of Kamla Devi nursing home situated in loni, Dina Nath, for the last six years and were charging Rs2-3 lakh and more as per their customers who are childless parents.
Investigators claimed that this arrest is just a tip of the iceberg and more players could be involved in the racket.
It has been revealed that the accused persons started running human trafficking racket by targeting unwed mothers who came to deliver babies in their nursing home. They were also into illegal purchase of infants and minor children. Sumit always called doctors from other hospitals and new MBBS passouts and then conducted surgeries in his nursing home.
“In 2006, Niharika came in contact with Sumit, who is husband of one of her friends. Sumit lured her to join this illegal activity with the promise of Rs40,000 for per deal,” Yadav added.
Investigators said that Sumit is a native of Gauripur village in Baghpat and did his schooling from Baghpat Government College. He belongs to a farming family. In 2003, he came to Delhi and had been working in a medical store in loni for the past three years. “In 2006, he told his employer that he was going to get admission in BAMS at Muzaffarpur but could not complete it. later, in 2007, he again came in the capital and took a rented accommodation and started running a nursing home in loni after giving Rs20,000 per month charge,” the officer added.
After some months, he came in contact with Dina Nath, who offered Sumit handsome amount to be part of a gang. They started running human trafficking racket and started targeting unwed mothers who came to deliver babies in the nursing home.
“They normally sold baby to childless parents. However, now we are trying to ascertain their customers as there is possibility that they were selling infants to some pimps,” the officer added.
Yadav said the duo was arrested from North-East Delhi’s Jyoti Nagar on Wednesday on a tip-off and the baby girl rescued from them. “On the orders of the Child Welfare Committee, the child has been admitted to an NGO Udyan in Gole Market. We have come to know that the few days ago, Nath and Sumit managed to get a baby girl from Shastri Park and they were trying to sell her to prospective buyers,” he added.
“Possibility of involvement of these criminals in other similar offences is not ruled out at this preliminary stage of investigation,” Yadav said, adding the arrests came following probe into an input about involvement of some people in human Trafficking. After receiving the information, they formed a team under the supervision of Inspector Sunil Kumar and they sent a decoy customer to the accused. After striking a deal for Rs3 lakh, they were apprehended. Police have also recovered forged birth certificates of the baby from their possession. Efforts are being made to trace the biological parents of the child.