Ex-Howrah deputy mayor’s daughter-in-law among 10 held for ‘selling’ newborn babies from adoption centre

The daughter-in-law of former Howrah deputy mayor Minati Adhikari and a state government official were among 10 people arrested from West Bengal’s Salkia for allegedly selling newborn babies from an adoption centre, police said on Saturday.

Acting on complaints, Howrah City Police Commissioner C Sudhakar led a raid on ‘Cradle Baby Centre’ late on Friday night and arrested 10 people, including the woman, who was running the adoption centre for the last five years, and the West Bengal Civil Service (WBCS) official, a senior officer said.

Several babies were removed from the private home by police during the raid, he said.

”We had received several complaints against this NGO, including allegations of selling babies in the guise of running the home and that there were incidents of molestation of the infants.

”An investigating team had been constituted to probe the matter. They found several discrepancies, following which we made the arrests and registered a case under POCSO Act,” the officer told PTI.

He said that further investigation is underway to ascertain whether the non-governmental organization (NGO) has links with inter-state child-trafficking rackets.