Father sells infant for ₹50,000 in Chamarajanagar; case registered

The baby was sold to a couple on September 14 by his father Basappa, who works at a hotel in Chamarajanagara, despite resistance from his wife, police said.

A man sold his 25-day-old baby boy for ₹50,000 in Chamarajanagar district, about 175 km from Bengaluru, as he allegedly struggling to meet growing medical expenses of his wife - a cardiac patient.

A man sold his 25-day-old baby boy for ₹50,000 in Chamarajanagar district, about 175 km from Bengaluru. (HT)

The incident was reported from Galipura village in Chamarajanagar district.

The baby was sold to a couple on September 14 by his father Basappa, who works at a hotel in Chamarajanagara, despite resistance from his wife, police said.

The couple have a 7-year-old son.

Nagaveni, the mother of the new-born, has been weeping ever since, but did not muster courage to tell anyone about it as she feared her husband would abandon her and her son.

“I am an orphan and feared that my husband would abandon me. My other child would be fatherless. Soon after the delivery, a person took a picture of the baby on his mobile. A week later, the same person called a couple to my house and taken away my baby. He gave ₹50,000 to my husband and took signatures on a blank paper,” Nagaveni told HT.

Nagaveni suffers from cardiac issues and her husband, an alcoholic, fought with her over selling the baby. “When I fell ill, I was taken to the hospital and warned not to raise the issue of the child,” she said.

A transgender research student, Deepa Buddhe, who visited the village, got wind of the incident and alerted the child protection unit in the district. The child protection unit filed a complaint with police.

Police are now searching for the baby.

Priyadarshini Sanekoppa, the deputy superintendent of Chamarajanagar police, said: “A case has been registered under IPC and the juvenile act. A police team traced the couple who bought the infant and will now bring the child back.”

Kumar Shetty, an official from the child protection unit, said: “We are searching for the person who mediated to sell the child. Nagaveni and her son have been given shelter at a remand home.”

On August 4 last year, a child-trafficking network was busted in neighbouring Mysuru district in which a mother-daughter duo targeted poor families and lured them to sell their infants for a price.