Rajasthan woman sells son for Rs.40,000, held

A woman, her husband and two others were arrested Thursday for selling her new-born son for Rs.40,000 in Rajathan’s Sriganganagar town, police said.

Sandhya Devi sold the child to her neighbour and his wife to get money for the treatment of her two-year-old paralytic son. She lives in Satya Farm neighbourhood in the town, some 500 km from Jaipur, police said.

“She had taken her paralytic son to a hospital in Udaipur where the doctors told her that his treatment would cost around Rs.40,000,” said an officer.

“Sandhya was pregnant at that time. When her neighbour Vinod Agarwal came to know that she was in need of money, he offered to bear the treatment cost of her paralytic son. In exchange, he demanded that she would have to sell her baby after delivery, in case it is a boy,” said the officer.

The officer said that Agarwal paid Rs.20,000 to Sandhya after she gave birth to a baby boy recently and said that he would pay the remaining amount after she handed over the new-born to him.

The team of anti-human trafficking branch of police got a tip-off about the illegal deal to sell the baby after which an investigation was launched.

A first information report was registered against Sandhya, her husband Ashok, neighbour Agarwal and his wife Shakuntala Devi Wednesday evening. “They were arrested Thursday,” said the officer.