Delhi Police has uncovered an inter-state child trafficking racket in which around 30 infants were allegedly sold across several states over the past one and a half years, with prices going up to Rs 10 lakh, officials said. The probe has so far led to the arrest of 13 people, including alleged traffickers, mediators, buyers and a private hospital owner, while five infants have been rescued.

Investigators said newborns and infants were taken from economically vulnerable families, including those in tribal areas of Rajasthan and Gujarat, and sold to childless couples in Delhi, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and other states. Police said the babies were allegedly procured for as little as Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 and later sold for between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 10 lakh after forged medical and birth records were prepared.

According to police, the network worked through a chain of suppliers, transporters and middlemen, and used private hospitals and fertility-related contacts to identify prospective buyers. A senior officer said the probe has so far found evidence suggesting that around 30 children may have been trafficked by the syndicate in the past 18 months. “The gang had developed an organised system where infants were sourced from vulnerable families and routed through facilitators before being handed over to buyers under fabricated identities,” the officer said.

The racket came to light after a decoy operation near R K Ashram Metro Station in Paharganj on June 5, when police caught three people allegedly trying to sell a newborn who was four to five days old. Follow-up raids led to the arrest of other accused, including a freelance lab technician, a driver, a domestic worker and the owner of a private hospital in outer Delhi, who allegedly played a key role in sheltering trafficked infants and arranging forged documents.

Police said one of the syndicate’s major suppliers, identified as Saybabhai Ghamar alias Kalia, was arrested in Gujarat on June 17. Efforts are now on to trace the biological parents of the rescued children and identify other infants allegedly sold by the gang. The Child Welfare Committee has taken custody of the five rescued infants and ordered their care and rehabilitation, police said.

The investigation has pointed to a structured trafficking network that allegedly bought infants from vulnerable families, created fake records and sold them across states for large sums, with police now trying to track more children and establish their identities.

Source: ANI