In a recent case of baby-trafficking at a hospital in the eastern state of West Bengal, where police arrested 13 people with two three-day-old babies in cardboard biscuit boxes during a raid.
During a raid, police have also found six-day-old baby separately in a room. The raid was conducted at the Hospital situated in Baduria, 80km from Kolkatta in West Bengal. Police told BBC that the babies were sold to those couples who are childless. Senior police official BL Meena said that the hospital largely appeared to target single mothers looking to abort their pregnancies by offering to buy their babies off them.
Usually, babies were stolen from poor women
For this, the hospital was paying three lack rupees for boys and ten lakh rupees for girls, he said, adding that babies with fairer complexions fascinated higher prices. But he said that in some cases babies were stolen from poor women who had just give birth and told them that their babies died during childbirth.
infants were sold to childless couples
Many women asked to see their dead babies but they were advised against it, they had to return home without seeing them. If they insisted to see their babies they were offered a bribe to shut their mouth, Meena said.
According to police, over 30 children were sold over a two-year to families in the Capital Delhi, the Indian city of Chennai and also to couples overseas including the UK. They are trying to trace the children and their parents. Police have arrested several staff members and the owner of the hospital and expecting to make more arrest in the next few days
