Man sells on Facebook baby boy sold by grandfather

Wednesday, 24/04/2013

http://punjabnewsline.com/news/Man-sells-off-grandson-after-deal-struck-on-Facebook.html

LUDHIANA: In a deal allegedly struck on Facebook, a baby boy was put on sale on the social networking site and finally picked up by a Delhi man for Rs 8 lakh after his maternal grandfather sold him off to a nurse for Rs 45,000. The child has been rescued by police from Delhi.

Ludhiana police today arrested the accused man identified as Feroze Khan, father of the girl, who had delivered the baby on April 3 at a hospital here, along with his accomplices Irfan and two hospital employees including nurse Sunita and lab assistant Gurpreet Singh. They also recovered Rs 44,500 from them.

According to the Basti Jodhewal police, the incident occurred on April 10 when Feroze who had apparently hatched the plan in a bid to facilitate the second marriage of his daughter, kidnapped the newborn boy. The police said the accused took away the child while his daughter, identified as Noori, was sleeping. He told his daughter that her baby boy had died.

He handed over the baby to Sunita who, in turn, handed it further to Gurpreet Singh who posted the pictures of the newborn child on Facebook saying the baby boy was available for sale. He eventually struck a deal with Amit, a resident of Delhi, who agreed to pay Rs 8 lakh.

In her complaint to the police, she said that she found her son to be missing when she woke up that day and later learnt that her father had in fact sold off her son.

Feroze initially wanted his daughter, who had divorced her husband last year, to abort the child, but since the doctors advised against medical termination of the pregnancy in its last stages, he decided to sell off the child on the advise of his friend Irfan, the police said.

In connivance with Sunita, Gurpreet Singh, a lab assistant at Satyam Hospital, allegedly struck the deal with the Delhi resident on Facebook.

Acting on the complaint filed by the mother, the police later rescued the newborn child from Amit in Delhi and reunited the baby with the mother.

Addressing the press conference here today, assistant commissioner of police Satish Malhotra said following the complaint by the woman, they have arrested four persons including the father of the girl, his friend Irfan, two employees of Satyam Hospital, Shingar cinema road, where she had delivered the baby on April 3, apart from booking Amit, a Delhi resident who had bought the child. He had paid an initial sum of Rs 75,000 to the accused, he informed.