Belagavi: Five arrested for selling infant for Rs 1.5 Lakh

Belagavi: The Malmaruti police have arrested five individuals on Sunday, including a doctor, for attempting to sell a one-month-old girl child for Rs 1.5 lakh.

The accused have been identified as Mahadevi alias Priyanka Bahubali Jain from Neginhal village in Bailhongal taluk, Dr. Abdul Gafar Husainsab Ladkhan, a doctor from Kittur, Chandan Girimallappa Subhedar from Bailhongal taluk, Pavitra Somappa Madiwalar, and Praveen Manjunath Madiwalar.

The arrests were made based on a complaint filed by Rajkumar Singappa Rathod, Coordinator of the District Child Protection Unit at the Government Adoption Center. The complaint alleged that the accused were attempting to sell the child.

According to the police, the one-month-old girl was born out of wedlock to Praveen Madiwalar and Pavitra Madiwalar. They had initially approached Dr. Abdul Gafar Ladkhan to carry out an abortion discreetly. However, Dr. Ladkhan facilitated the delivery and kept the baby with him.

Dr. Ladkhan allegedly took care of the baby for a month and sold her for 60,000 rupees to Priyanka Jain through his hospital staff member, Chandan Subhedar. Priyanka Jain, who works as a nurse at the hospital, was known to Dr. Ladkhan, police said.

Subsequently, Pavitra reportedly bought the baby for 60,000 rupees and attempted to sell her to another party for 1.4 lakh rupees.

Acting on this information, the police detained Priyanka, Dr. Ladkhan, and the others. The accused confessed to the crime during interrogation, police said.

The case has been registered under the IPC sections and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) 2015.