NEW DELHI, Nov 24: In a shocking incident, a couple in Mumbai sold their two children, including a new-born girl, only to finance their addictions to drugs.
The police have arrested the couple and the person who bought the girl and has detained an alleged commission agent involved in the deal but is still on the look for the two-year old boy and the person who bought him.
According to the Mumbai Crime Branch police, the arrested accused include parents Shabbir and Sania Khan and Shakeel Makrani, the purchaser of the one-month old girl. Usha Rathod, an alleged agent who took a commission from the sale, was detained by the Crime Branch.
“A couple addicted to drugs sold their own two children to raise money in Andheri. As soon as the couple’s family learned about the incident, the story came to light. Police have registered a case against the accused couple and two others. The accused couple sold the boy for sixty thousand rupees and the one-month-old girl for fourteen thousand rupees,” Daya Nayak, Mumbai Crime Branch said in a statement.
Police registered a case against Shabbir Khan, his wife Sania, Usha Rathod and Shakeel Makrani. Shabbir and Sania were drug addicts.
“They could not live without drugs, and at the same time the accused woman, Rathod, came into contact with them. The couple sold their son to a person for ₹ 60,000. The identity of the person to whom the children were sold is yet to be ascertained. Also, the couple recently had a daughter. They sold the girl to the accused, Shakeel Makrani, last month for ₹ 14,000,” the Crime Branch added.
The incident came to light when Rubina Khan, the sister of Shabbir, came to know about the deal and lodged a complaint at D.N. Nagar police station against her brother and the sister-in-law. Based on Rubina’s complaint, D.N. Nagar police registered a case and handed over the investigation to the crime branch.
A few years ago, a couple in Kanpur had allegedly sold their five-month-old baby to pay their debts and to avoid any suspicion had later filed a missing police complaint in a bid to evade queries about the child’s sudden disappearance, police said today.
Accused Khalid and his wife Saeeda had complained to Kanpur Senior Superintendent of Police Shalabh Mathur that their baby, youngest of their five children, was abducted while he was playing outside their house. But during investigation, it was revealed that they had actually sold the toddler to a businessman Haroon in Jalaun district for ₹ 1.5 lakh to pay their debts.
(Manas Dasgupta)
