A case was registered on Thursday against three people, including a couple, for buying a newborn baby for Rs 1.5 lakh through a broker, police said.
The couple, in their early 50s, had bought the baby boy with primary complex from the government hospital at Mannaparai after its biological parents said they were so poor that they could not bring it up, the police said.
The couple, after getting the signature of the child's parents on a bond paper, had come to the government hospital here for treatment of the baby, they said.
The doctors found out that the couple were not the biological parents as the woman said she could not breast-feed the baby.
Upon enquiry, the doctors learnt the couple had purchased the baby as their attempts to adopt one failed, and informed the police.
Besides, the elderly couple said they wanted a baby to start a new life, after they lost their 30-year-old son in an accident some years ago.
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They bought the baby through a broker from a couple for whom it was their third baby, the police said.
Investigations revealed the broker Anthony Ammal got a brokerage ofRs 20,000, they added.