New Delhi, June 17: A man and his wife have been arrested for allegedly selling their six-day-old baby to a childless couple and later misleading the police by cooking up a story of kidnap, officials said on Thursday.
The boy was born on June 8 at Narayana Hospital in Gurugram but the two couples had made a verbal agreement about his sale and purchase when Pooja Devi (22), wife of Govind Kumar (30), was pregnant with him, they said. The couple sold their child to Vidyanand Yadav (50) and Rampari Yadav (45), residents of Madhubani, Bihar, for Rs 3.60 lakh and signed a Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA) in this regard on June 12, they added. During the investigation, it was found that Vidyanand contacted Govind with the help of his relative Raman Kumar Yadav and his friend Harpal Singh.
The two couples and both the mediators have been taken into arrest and the baby has been rescued from the Yadavs, police said, adding the Child Welfare Committee would decide on the custody. According to police, Vidyanand sold his land (measuring 450 yards) for Rs 3 lakh to buy the baby from Govind and his wife. Before the birth of the child, Vidyanand had made it clear that the deal was valid only in the case of a male child. After the boy was born, the buyer made the payment in the form of cheques but Govind was unable to cash them as they were Post-Dated Cheque (PDC).
He tried to contact Raman and Haripal but they had apparently blocked his number. Thus, he made a police complaint about kidnapping, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Atul Kumar Thakur said. In the FIR lodged at Fatehpur Beri police station, Govind said that Haripal offered him and his family a place in his house in Aya Nagar as there was not enough space at their rented accommodation after the birth of the baby. He alleged that Haripal locked them inside while they were sleeping and ran away with their child, police said, adding a case under Section 363 (kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered.
When Haripal was detained, he told police that Govind and his wife gave away the newborn child to Raman Yadav's relatives in exchange of money, the DCP said. Raman handed over cash worth Rs 2 lakh and four cheques of Rs 40,000 each to Govind on the day of agreement at Haripal's house on June 12. Police then nabbed Raman from Sanjay Camp area in Moti Bagh. He revealed that his relatives, who bought the child, were travelling to their hometown by Swatantra Senani Express that left Delhi at 9.15 pm on Tuesday. Delhi police got in touch with officials at Harbans Mohal police station near Kanpur Central, who arrested Vidyanand and Rampari from the train around 2.30 am.
After their arrest, it was found that Govind and his wife initially demanded Rs 4 lakh and eventually locked the deal at Rs 3.60 lakh. Govind and Pooja have a five-year-old boy who lives with his grandparents in their native village in Bihar.
