MUMBAI: The Mumbai Crime Branch arrested three people, including a couple accused of selling their children to arrange money for buying drugs and rescued a one-month-old baby girl from Andheri on Friday. A search for the second two-year-old son is going on.
The arrested accused include parents Shabbir and Sania Khan and Shakeel Makrani. Usha Rathod, an alleged agent who took a commission from the sale, was detained by the Crime Branch.
“A couple addicted to drugs sold their own two children to raise money in Andheri. As soon as the couple’s family learned about the incident, the story came to light. Police have registered a case against the accused couple and two others. The accused couple sold the boy for Rs 60,000 and the one-month-old girl for Rs 14,000 thousand,” Daya Nayak, Mumbai Crime Branch said in a statement.
Police registered a case against Shabbir Khan, his wife Sania, Usha Rathore and Shakeel Makrani. Shabbir and Sania were drug addicts.
“They could not live without drugs, and at the same time the accused woman, Rathod, came into contact with them. The couple sold their son to a person for Rs 60,000. The identity of the person to whom the children were sold is yet to be ascertained. Also, the couple recently had a daughter. They sold the girl to the accused, Shakeel Makrani, last month for Rs 14,000,” the Crime Branch added.
When Rubina Khan, the sister of accused Shabbir, came to know about the incident, she was shocked. She got angry at her brother and immediately reported the incident at D.N. Nagar police station. She filed a complaint against the brother and sister-in-law at the police station.
Based on Rubina’s complaint, D.N. Nagar police registered a case and handed over the investigation to the crime branch. (ANI)