New Delhi, Feb 24 (PTI) A woman arrested earlier this month for child trafficking not only kidnapped and sold other children but also sold her own son to make a living, an official claimed.

"The revelation came to light during an ongoing investigation by the railway police following her arrest. The accused, a 34-year-old woman, was also searching for buyers to sell her 15-month-old son and her unborn child due to financial distress," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Railway) KPS Malhotra told PTI.

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According to the police she had been involved in child trafficking for the past many years and was arrested earlier this month with the recovery of two kidnapped children from New Delhi Railway Station.

The official further said that during interrogation, she disclosed that her first marriage took place 17 years ago in Bardhaman in West Bengal, where she had two sons. However, her husband divorced her seven years ago, after which she moved to Faridabad and remarried a man named Suraj. From her second marriage, she had two more children -- a six-year-old boy and a 15-month-old toddler.

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Two years ago, the woman came in contact with another woman in Faridabad, who claimed to be a doctor. She allegedly informed her that she had connections with childless couples looking to adopt and assured her of good money for providing young children. The accused, struggling financially, decided to give up her six-year-old son for adoption for which she received Rs 90,000, said the DCP.

She further revealed that she was planning to sell her younger son for Rs 2 to 2.5 lakh, hoping to buy a small house in Faridabad.

"During the investigation, we also got to know that she even considered selling her unborn child to improve her financial situation. But we are verifying the details provided by her during interrogation," DCP KPS Malhotra further said.

The Railway Unit of the Delhi Police had busted a child-trafficking gang, arrested four people and rescued two children from their clutches on February 10.

The Police had said that with their arrest, the team had solved three cases spanning from 2023 to 2025, also revealing that the gang was supplying trafficked children to childless couples under the pretext of adoption.

"The investigation began after a case was reported at the New Delhi Railway Station on October 17, last year. A woman lodged a complaint stating that her two-and-a-half-year-old son had been kidnapped while she was asleep in the station's main hall," said the DCP.

The officer said that CCTV footage revealed an unknown woman taking the child in an auto-rickshaw.

Teams traced the auto-rickshaw driver who confirmed that he had dropped the suspect near the Badarpur-Faridabad toll gate.

"While investigating the matter, the police teams also got to know that on July 31, another woman's three-year-old son was kidnapped from the ticket counter hall at the railway station. CCTV analysis in that case also showed the same woman abducting the child and escaping in an auto-rickshaw to the same location," he said.

On January 21, another kidnapping was reported at New Delhi Railway Station when a woman's four-month-old infant was abducted from the Food Court Waiting Hall. With three similar cases under scrutiny, the police formed a team and a massive rescue operation was launched.

Teams examined footage from 700 CCTV cameras, mapping the suspect's movements with phone tracking data. The breakthrough came when the suspect was spotted boarding an auto-rickshaw from the railway station's main gate.

The team eventually traced the suspect couple to Faridabad after raids and four people were held.

The DCP had said that the team apprehended a woman and her husband who were responsible for kidnapping infants from the railway station after reconnaissance. Another woman, a clerk for an advocate, would prepare forged adoption documents to make trafficking appear legitimate.

The team later arrested a self-proclaimed doctor, who is 10th passed, she misrepresented trafficked infants as abandoned children to childless couples. They were working in a very planned manner that exploited legal loopholes and medical misrepresentation to sell the kidnapped infants.

Sharing the gang's modus operandi, police said that the gang used coded language and frequently changed phone numbers to evade arrest. The self-proclaimed doctor falsely labelled trafficked children as abandoned or illegitimate. She used hospital contacts to introduce trafficked children to couples seeking adoption.

The infants were later sold to unsuspecting childless couples who believed they were undergoing legal adoption.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)