Child-lifting racket busted in Salem - by Our Special Correspondent

Child-lifting racket busted in Salem - by Our Special Correspondent

SALEM, JUNE 16. The Salem city police have busted a major child lifting

racket that is likely to have far-reaching implications. Four infants,

stolen straight from hospital were recovered and five persons, including

three women were arrested.

At a press conference, Mr.V.Jegannathan, Commissioner, said this was the

first time in Salem police had received complaints of infants missing from

hospital, that too accidentally.

Mr. Jegannathan said one Mrs.Sathya, 26, wife of Mr. Vadivel of

Selathampatty, near here, lodged a complaint that her husband had driven her

out of home, as she had lost her child in the Government Mohan

Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital here, two days after delivery.

``This is the first time that such an issue was brought to our

notice.Inquiries revealed that a few more infants had also been lost. But no

complaint had been lodged. Ultimately, we could receive in total, complaints

regarding the loss of three baby girls and a baby boy.

While the infants in the former category were in the age group of 35 days,

25 days and even two days when they were missing from the hospital, the baby

boy was also missing on the second day of his birth.''

A special team, with the information produced by two auto drivers, in whose

vehicle the infants had been taken, learnt that Sarada, 35, had been

stealing them from the hospital.

Explaining her modus operandi, the Commissioner said that she used to pose

as if her relative had delivered a child in the hospital and befriend the

pregnant women without any assistance at the hospital. She used to help them

in need and thus gain their confidence.

After the delivery, when the mother is away to answer nature's call, she

would escape with the infant. She had been selling these infants to Stella,

60, of Sanjeevarayanpettai for Rs.1,000 per head. Stella, with the help of

her son, John Boscoe ,37, daughter-in-law, Philomena,33, and friend, Vimala,

55, handed them over to Somasundaram,43, who claimed to be a social worker

employed by the Malaysia Social Service, an NGO based in Chennai.

Somasundram confessed to the police that he had sold these four infants to

an orphanage named ``Madras Social Service Guild'' at Red Hills, Chennai,

for Rs. 30,000. He had, in turn, provided Rs. 5,000 per child to Stella who

shared it with others.

However, both Stella and Somasundram said that they were under the

impression that these children were deserted by the parents as female

infanticide was rampant in Salem district. The police had recovered all the

four infants and arrested Stella and four others while Sarada is absconding.

They had been booked under Sec 363(a) for abduction which entailed a maximum

punishment of 10 years imprisonment. To a question, the Commissioner

admitted that it was strange that an orphanage was ``purchasing'' children.

Hence, the police proposed to interrogate not only the Red Hills orphanage

authorities, but also Fr.Vincent Xavier,a former Director of another NGO

taking care of street children.