A 25-day-old baby boy born to an unwed mother would have been sold for Rs50,000 by a doctor had the police not intervened in time.
MUMBAI: A 25-day-old baby boy born to an unwed mother would have been sold for Rs50,000 by a doctor had the police not intervened in time.
Police arrested Dr Anuradha Desai, 50, who runs a maternity home in Malvani near Malad, her daughter Shweta (21) and friend Shalini Shah for allegedly trying to sell the baby.
Senior police inspector Jaywant Hargude said Prema Chandivade, a resident of Kandivli, gave birth to the baby on August 24 at the Anuradha Maternity and Nursing Home in the Jankalyan Nagar area of Malvani.
Chandivade, an unwed mother, didn’t want to keep the baby and left it at the nursing home. Dr Desai then asked her friend Shalini Shah, an estate agent, to look for anyone who would be interested in buying the baby, police said.
“We received a tip-off that a doctor is trying to sell off an abandoned baby. When we got specific information, we sent decoy customers to the maternity home,” said Hargude.
Desai demanded Rs50,000 and also promised to provide a birth certificate, Hargude said. She demanded Rs25,000 in advance, which the police officials who were posing as clients gave, he said.
The police arrested Dr Desai on September 13 while accepting Rs15,000 to hand over the baby to the decoy clients. Desai’s daughter Shweta, who got the birth certificate, and friend Shalini were also arrested.
Hargude said the police traced the mother in Kandivli, where she works as a maid servant. “She said that she had an affair with a man who refused to marry her. She didn’t want the baby because she did have the resources to look after it,” Hargude added.
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