Now Reading: Newborn sold for Rs 4.5 lakh in Bihar, police arrest parents, ASHA worker
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Newborn sold for Rs 4.5 lakh in Bihar, police arrest parents, ASHA worker
A newborn was sold for Rs 4.5 lakh in Bihar's East Champaran district, and a dispute over the payment exposed the transaction to police. The parents received only Rs 1.5 lakh from…
A newborn was sold for Rs 4.5 lakh in Bihar's East Champaran district, and a dispute over the payment exposed the transaction to police. The parents received only Rs 1.5 lakh from intermediaries who kept the rest. Police arrested the parents, the alleged buyer, and an ASHA worker accused of brokering the deal.
Acting on a tip-off, police raided locations and rescued the baby safely from the buyer. The child has been handed over to the child protection unit. Police recovered Rs 1.5 lakh in cash.
An FIR has been registered under the Juvenile Justice Act and human trafficking laws. Investigators are probing whether the ASHA worker facilitated similar deals earlier and whether others were involved.
Indian Opinion Analysis
Bihar has the highest rate of child marriage and one of the highest rates of child trafficking in India. The National Crime Records Bureau data shows hundreds of trafficking cases are reported from the state each year. The involvement of an ASHA worker, a government-linked frontline health volunteer, is especially disturbing because she was positioned to identify vulnerable newborns. The Juvenile Justice Act prescribes up to seven years' imprisonment for selling a child. The next step will be whether the district child protection unit traces any prior transactions through the same intermediary network.
Source: indiatoday.in
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
