Suryapet police bust inter-state baby selling racket; rescue 10 infants | Hyderabad News
Hyderabad: Suryapet police Wednesday busted an inter-state baby-selling racket and arrested 13 people involved in the crime. Based on information from the accused, cops later raided multiple locations in Hyderabad and erstwhile Nalgonda district and rescued 10 infants sold to childless couples.All the children are aged between 9 months and 18 months. They were allegedly trafficked and sold over the last one year, police said.“The accused procured infants from Gujarat and Maharashtra by paying Rs 3 to Rs 5 lakh per child to the ‘supplier’. They then sold these babies to couples in Telangana for Rs 5 to Rs 10 lakh,” said K Narasimha, SP, Suryapet . “All the 10 rescued infants have been handed over to the district child protection officers for safe custody. They are all healthy,” the SP added.Acting on specific information about two families being in possession of trafficked infants, police initially raided two houses in Tekumatla village near Suryapet and rescued two boys. Based on their confession, police arrested Nakka Yadagiri (45) and his wife N Umarani (34) — running an egg supply business in Suryapet town.During the interrogation, the couple confessed to the crime. They also provided details about 11 of their associates who were later arrested from the Suryapet Hitec bus stand. Their interrogation revealed an elaborate inter-state child trafficking racket. The accused were identified as K Nagendra Kumar (plumber), K Rama Laxmi (nurse), P Pavani (private worker ), G Vijaya Laxmi and A Satyamani (both housewives)— all of them from Vijayawada. A 35-year-old car driver from Uppuguda, Mudavath Raju; I Shobarani, a nurse from Ghatkesar; Khan Shaheena, a housewife from Udaipur in Rajasthan; Mohammed Shahana, a housewife from Trimulgherry; Sabavath Srinivas, a driver from Dilsukhnagar; and E Sunitha, a nurse from Hyderabad; were among the arrested.Five among the 13 accused have a criminal history, police said.Acting on leads from them, police raided eight other houses in Suryapet town, Penpahad, Thummala Penpahad, Uppalapahad, Chinna Suraram (in the erstwhile Nalgonda district), and a house in Hyderabad to rescue eight more babies — including three girls. Families who purchased the infants are childless couples from a lower-middle-class background, police said. They may be added as accused following a preliminary probe.“The accused are currently in judicial remand. A case was registered at Suryapet rural police station under the BNS and the JJ Act. A special team has been formed to investigate the case,” the SP said.
