Police in Maharashtra`s Thane have exposed a human trafficking racket with the arrest of five persons trying to sell a 7-day-old baby for Rs 6 lakh, officials said on Friday, reported news agency PTI.
Acting on inputs, the Anti-Human Trafficking Cell of the city police laid a trap near a hotel in the Badlapur West area on Wednesday night. They used a decoy buyer to confirm that a group was indeed trying to sell a newborn, an official said.
The gang was paid Rs 20,000 via UPI as token money, with the remaining balance of Rs 5.8 lakh to be paid in cash, he said. After being alerted by the decoy customer, a police team reached the spot and arrested all five persons who had come for the deal, reported PTI.
The accused have been identified as Shankar Sambhaji Manohar (36), who accepted the cash, Reshma Shahabuddin Shaikh (35), who had got the baby, Igatpuri-based agents Nitin Sambhaji Manohar (33) and Shekar Ganesh Jadhav (35), and Asif Chand Khan (27), an agent based in Mankhurd, Mumbai, reported PTI.
A sixth accomplice, identified as Sabina, is on the run and police are trying to trace her, he said.
A senior official from Badlapur (West) police station said, "The gang had connived to sell the newborn for Rs 6 lakh. We suspect this is part of a much larger scam involving the kidnapping and sale of infants to childless couples. We are trying to identify the biological mother," reported PTI.
The infant has been moved to a specialised care home. Police are also investigating whether a wider network of hospitals or nursing homes is involved in supplying newborns to traffickers, he added.
Aadhaar, PAN card copies of job aspirants misused for financial transactions; probe launched
In another case, the police in Maharashtra`s Thane district have launched a probe into alleged misuse of identity documents for financial transactions worth Rs 35 crore, police said on Thursday, reported PTI.
Over the past one and a half years, accused Salma Sayyed and her associates collected Aadhaar, PAN, photographs and other identity documents of job aspirants by promising them well-paid employment opportunities, an official said.
"These documents were later misused by forging signatures and creating firms and bank accounts without the knowledge of the victims," he said.
A company named `Jaljyoti Enterprises` was fraudulently registered in one man`s name without his knowledge, and current accounts were opened. Financial transactions worth about Rs 35 crore were carried out through these bank accounts, he said, reported PTI.
The 27-year-old resident of the Ambernath area approached the police after learning about the misuse of his identity documents.
Similar companies were opened in the names of other victims as well, resulting in massive financial transactions, the official said.
"The probe is underway to ascertain the full scope of the fraud and identify all those involved," he added.
(With inputs from PTI)
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