NEW DELHI, INDIA — Delhi Police have uncovered and described the operations of a sophisticated cross-border baby trafficking network, principally controlled by a group of women who reportedly exploited poor families in tribal areas to sell male children to affluent buyers in Delhi. A terrifying 2,000-page chargesheet issued earlier this month shows how these criminals bought newborns for as little as ₹1.5 lakh and sold them for up to ten times that amount.
The large investigation has so far saved three babies, all of whom are currently in the custody of the child welfare committee. Police are still working quickly to find a fourth infant who they think was trafficked by the same gang.
A Baby’s Dangerous Trip
The chargesheet details terrible events, like the kidnapping of a four-day-old baby boy from a tribal town in Rajasthan. His poor parents, who already had a lot of kids to take care of, are said to have given him to a stranger for quick cash. Hours later, a trafficker was holding the newborn in his lap on a long trip to Delhi. When the cops found him, he was already sold and was sitting in a parked car in a busy market.
Pooja Singh, 37, is at the center of this merciless scam. She used to give eggs, but when she was told she couldn’t do it anymore, she allegedly switched to trafficking babies. She is said to have recruited other ladies who were also having money problems to join an organized group. A high-ranking official said, “Their husbands were either out of work or made very little money.” “They already knew people at IVF clinics and knew families who wanted kids, especially boys.”
Pooja’s main crew included Vimla (59), who was said to be her second-in-command; Anjali (36), who had worked on a CBI child trafficking case before; and middlemen Jitender and Ranjit, who were in charge of getting babies from rural areas of India. All 11 people who are suspected, including six women, are now in jail and facing charges of conspiracy and corruption.
Following the Tip-Off to Bust: Unraveling the Network
In March, the Delhi Police started looking into the case after a key tip led a team lead by Inspector Vishwender Choudhary to Uttam Nagar. After 20 days of careful watching and studying phone data in great detail, they made their first big discovery. On April 8, Yasmin, Anjali, and Jitender were caught trying to sell a baby from a car.
Ankit Singh, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka), said, “They were talking about a price between ₹5 and ₹10 lakh.” The baby who was part of this bust was born in Rajasthan on the same day and was trafficked across state lines. Police said that Yasmin was the “carrier” and paid ₹1.5 lakh for the kid. Anjali and Jitender were in charge of making the final transaction with the family in Delhi.
Sadly, the trafficked baby was taken to the ICU with jaundice and other problems that were directly caused by the trauma of being moved over state lines just a day after he was born. A devoted female police officer stayed with him the whole time he was in the hospital, and happily, the baby became better.
Later, investigators found the baby’s biological father near Udaipur. The guy who was out of work and already taking care of four other kids admitted to selling his newborn because he needed the money.
Going for families that are weak and want boys a lot
The police swiftly found out that the gang had sold at least four boys as newborns in the past year. “Another investigator said, “They particularly looked for very pregnant women in tribal regions and made agreements just before or after delivery.” “There was a lot of demand for baby boys under 30 days old.” This shows how terribly troubling it is that gender preference is driving these kinds of illegal activities.
The Supreme Court reacted on its own on April 21, calling the first arrests a “huge operation.” The court quickly told the Delhi Police to step up their search for any missing babies and catch all the other criminals.
In the weeks that followed, police teams led by Sub-Inspector Rakesh and Assistant Sub-Inspector Kartar Singh used a mix of digital forensics, phone triangulation, and regular fieldwork to catch more suspects. Jyoti and Saroj, who had both been arrested before for trafficking babies in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, were taken from Vikaspuri. Ranjit, who is said to have looked for infants in remote areas, was detained in Rajasthan.
On April 30, police eventually found the suspected kingpin, Pooja Singh, at a rented residence in Karkardooma and arrested her. Even though she tried to trash her phone, the police were able to put together her large operation with the help of call detail records.
A single important call led police to a businessman in Madipur, West Delhi. The police said he paid about ₹8 lakh for a baby boy earlier this year. A third officer said, “He already had three daughters. He wanted a son to take over his shoe business.” The guy was detained after rescuing the two-month-old kid and getting better. Another baby was saved from a house in Gulabi Bagh, where a 40-year-old transporter had bought him.
Fake papers and profit that won’t stop
It is said that each of the accused made about ₹35,000 for each kid they sold. Police said that families who bought the newborns were allegedly told that the adoptions were legitimate and that Vimla gave them fake affidavits to back up their claims. People who bought things may not have known—or didn’t want to ask—if the procedure was legal, but the truth is that these sales were against the law.
The chargesheet also shows that several of the accused have a very high rate of repeat offenses. Anjali was caught in the first bust in April. She had just gotten out of jail after a CBI child trafficking case and was said to have quickly rejoined Pooja’s network. Police had known Saroj and Jyoti for a long time and had similar records in these kinds of instances.
The search for “baby no. 4” is still going on, and authorities think she was sold in Delhi earlier this year. However, unlike earlier incidents, the suspects are said to have used encrypted internet communications to talk to the buyers, which made it very hard to find the child. Investigators are also looking for a second unknown intermediary who mostly worked in Gujarat. This makes people worry that more babies may have been trafficked than the four that have been found so far.
Investigators admit that the road to ultimate justice may be lengthy and difficult, even with the arrests and the rescue of three babies. The accused acted like they were legitimate, taking advantage of the poor’s need for money and the rich’s desire for a male heir.
One officer said sadly, “These babies didn’t even have names.” “People bought them like property.”