NEW DELHI, Aug 1: A woman has been arrested in Kolkata for allegedly selling her infant daughter to another woman. It is said the accused mother, Rupali Mondal, sold off her baby for Rs 4 lakhs.
The matter came to light after officials at Anandapur police station received information about the illegal transaction that Rupali, a resident of the Rail colony in Kolkata’s Nonadanga, had struck in lieu of her not-even-a-month-old daughter.
Subsequently, the police questioned the mother and she failed to give any satisfactory answers to officials. Following this, the woman was arrested on Monday morning and she later even confessed to the crime leading to the arrest of two others, namely Rupa Das and Swapna Sardar.
A case was registered on the basis of a complaint from Rupali’s next-door neighbour, Pratima Bhuinya. The accused have been slapped with charges under sections 317 (abandoning child), 370 (buying, disposing of person), 372 (selling minor) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) along with relevant sections of the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act.
After an intense interrogation of both the accused, they pointed to one Kalyani Guha from Midnapur. Guha was arrested by officials of Parnarsree police station and they rescued the baby from her room. It was learnt that Kalyani Guha is a childless woman married for 15 years. The minor girl was safely rescued and she will be handed over to the childcare unit.
(Manas Dasgupta)
