Mumbai child trafficking case: 35 accused sold 14 babies for ₹80,000-7 lakh
The children, aged between 5 months and 4 years, were sold for amounts ranging ₹80,000 to ₹7 lakh through a well-oiled network of agents and doctors
MUMBAI: The child trafficking syndicate busted in April this year sold 14 children to childless couples across the country over the past year and a half, says the 2,000-page charge sheet submitted in the case by the Mumbai crime branch. The children, aged between 5 months and 4 years, were sold for amounts ranging ₹80,000 to ₹7 lakh through a well-oiled network of agents and doctors, the charge sheet further states.
The police have rescued nine of the 14 trafficked children and arrested 35 persons in connection with the case, who have all been named in the charge sheet.
Dwelling on the modus operandi of the accused, the charge sheet says that egg donors and surrogate mothers attached with in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) centres would act as the first point of contact between the syndicate and childless couples. They would identify couples who wanted to buy newborn babies from among the customers of IVF centres and contact procuring agents, who would roam around footpaths and slum pockets and convince poor, needy women who had recently delivered babies to sell them for a price.
Three women agents arrested in the case were key players in the syndicate, the charge sheet says. Two of them – Sheetal Ware and Sneha Suryavanshi – are from Mumbai while the third, Santoshi Gangaram Reddy, is from Hyderabad. Some children were allegedly sold through Dr Sanjay Khandare, another arrested accused who runs a small hospital in Thane.
The syndicate was unearthed after unit 2 of the crime branch on April 27 received information that a woman identified as Kanta Pednekar had sold her five-month-old baby through Sheetal Ware from Vikhroli East on December 13, 2022. Ware’s interrogation revealed that Pednekar had sold her baby through Dr Khandare, a homeopathic doctor, and another agent, Vandana Pawar, to a Ratnagiri based couple – Sanjay Pawar and Savita Pawar – for ₹2 lakh. The police then traced the couple, found the baby boy in their possession and rescued him.
Based on Ware’s revelations, the police arrested Khandare and Vandana Pawar. Further investigation revealed the names of other agents, and a scrutiny of their mobile call records and bank transactions showed that the syndicate had sold 14 children – three baby girls and 11 baby boys – between September 2022 and February 2024. The children were sold for amounts ranging ₹80,000 to ₹7 lakh, said police inspector Dilip Tejankar of unit 2.
“So far, we have arrested 35 persons in connection with the case and have rescued nine children across Mumbai, Thane, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Secundarabad,” said Tejankar.
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