Child trafficking racket: 7-month-old rescued; 2 more held

A seven-month-old boy was rescued here as two more persons were arrested in connection with a child trafficking racket whose nine members, including two women, are already in custody, police said.
While nabbing Gaurav Kumar Raghav (38) and Vikrant (32), police also rescued the baby, who was kidnapped by the gang -- which kidnapped children and sold them mostly to childless couples -- from outer Delhi's Alipur area, Joint Commissioner of Police (North) Sanjay Singh said today.
The racket came to light as police began investigating the abduction of a one-and-a-half-year-old boy from northwest Delhi's Swaroop Nagar area on Tuesday.

The chuild was kidnapped in broad daylight by two motorbike-borne men, later identified as Hemant and Rakesh, who were tracked down through technical surveillance.
During interrogation, the information provided by them led to the arrest of the others, identified as Poonam, Anita, Sonu, Kundan, Vijay, Rehan and Raju. They were trying to sell the child and had negotiated with a client who was ready to pay Rs 5 lakh.
It also emerged that the accused had kidnapped a seven- month-old boy from Alipur area in January. That child too was picked up by two men, who later turned out to be Hemant and Rakesh.

Around two months ago, Raghav had approached Vijay for a male child of around six months of age, which he claimed was for a childless couple. When they managed to kidnap the toddler from Alipur, the sold him to Vikrant, a middleman, for Rs 2.10 lakh.
"The arrests have been made under two separate cases. The police are questioning the accused and identify other children kidnapped and sold by the racket," a senior official said.