JOIN USA woman and two others have been arrested for allegedly running a child trafficking racket in the Capital. A minor has also been rescued from the gang, police said on Wednesday.
Sunita, 48, Praveen Gupta, 19, and Sumit Giri, 20 were held after Laxmi Rathore approached police on June 16, reporting that her one-year-old son had been kidnapped from Rohini sector 12. All the accused are residents of Budh Vihar phase 1.
“We got a tip-off that Sunita may be involved in the kidnapping. A raid was then conducted at her house and the child was rescued. Praveen and Sumit were held from Rithala Metro station at her instance,” said B S Jaiswal, deputy commissioner of police (outer).
Police said the accused were neighbours and would kidnap kids to sell them to couples who wanted to adopt children.
“Praveen and Sumit used to visit residential colonies on Sumit’s brother’s motorcycle to identify easy targets. After kidnapping, they used to hand over the children to Sunita,” Jaiswal added.
Sunita kept the child at her Budh Vihar house. “She was searching for couples who could offer good money to get custody of the kidnapped child,” Jaiswal said.
Sunita, who has studied up to class 5, belongs to a poor family and her husband Sanjay Kumar, is suffering from paralysis. Praveen and Sumit worked as labourers at a shoe factory in Mangolpuri.
A case of kidnapping has been registered against them with Prashant Vihar police station.