Six people booked over sale of newborn baby

A simple friendship has irrevocably altered the life of the young woman and a child she conceived out of wedlock.

Asha (name changed), is a slight thin woman, who a few would mistake for being 23-year-old. A brisk affair with a family friend, however, prompted Asha to give birth to a healthy baby girl in mid-November. The new mother is now embroiled in a police investigation after her child was sold to a couple for Rs 30,000.

Sources said Asha’s mother, Sudha (named changed) objected to the child being born because it had been conceived out of wedlock. This unyielding point of view allegedly prompted Sudha to put her granddaughter up for sale.

The police have now booked six individuals, including Sudha, in connection with the case.

Bindya Yohannan, a counsellor for the police commissioner’s office, confirmed that Asha’s mother had been paid Rs 30,000 for the baby.

The police said the father of the child, who has not been charged, was a postgraduate but was employed as a delivery person.

He refused to marry Asha and had demanded that she abort the fetus, a source informed.

In her complaint to the police, Asha said medical staff at her hospital in Cambridge Layout had told that her baby had died. In some ways, this was sobering news for the young woman because she had attempted to abort the pregnancy two months earlier.

“She bought over-the-counter abortion pills, but remarkably nothing happened to the fetus. The child was a born survivor,” said Yohannan.

“Later, she learned through a sympathetic nurse that the baby had survived and that it had been sold. Consequently, she approached the HAL police and Parihar Santwana Kendra,” Yohannan added.

The Parihar Santwana Kendra, a government organisation which aids women and children in need of help with counselling, living facilities and counselling, moved to register a First Information Report (FIR) with the police.

Investigating officers found the child and returned it to her mother on Sunday.

However, both mother and child face a tenuous future as they have been disowned by the girl’s family.

“We will provide shelter, counselling and postnatal care for the pair for the next six months, following which we will also look into securing employment for Asha,” Yohannan clarified.