Police bust adoption racket, rescue four kids

Mumbai: The Mankhurd police have rescued four more children based on the findings of the interrogation of four accused who were arrested for kidnapping a minor boy earlier this month. The police, who have now busted the racket, say it is an inter-state adoption racket operating in at least three states for more than a year.

The case came to light when the police started investigating the kidnapping of a one and half-year-old boy after his uncle registered a missing persons report earlier this year. The probe led to the arrest of a Yogita Saale (21), a relative of the infant, who had kidnapped the minor and sold him to a gang of women for Rs 2.5 lakh. Subsequently, five members of the gang were arrested, including a Goa-based couple who ran an NGO that was said to be a front for the adoption racket.

Following the arrests, the police learnt of the inter-state links and sent teams to Goa, Karnataka and Gujarat. Manoj Lohia, additional commissioner of police (east region), confirmed the rescues and said the teams had gone to other states after the arrested accused provided leads. “We rescued four children — a 10-month-old boy from Gujarat, a six-month-old boy from Karnataka and two boys from Goa, aged eight months and four months,” Mr Lohia said.

The arrested accused have been identified as Maharashtra-based Mala Wankhede (40) and Asha Thakur (36), Goa-based Noorjehan Mulla (40) and Karnataka-based Prabhavati Naik (48).

“One of the rescued boys from Goa was born out of wedlock and was being sold by the mother. The gang bought him and later sold him to a couple when he was four days old,” the source said. The gang had a cardinal rule to always divide the money earned from adoptive parents equally and leave no room for any dispute over money, the source added.