TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Crime Branch’s (CB) investigation into child trafficking has revealed that the women who sold their newborn babies did not maintain details of their customers. A senior officer conceded that tracking the buyers could thus be difficult.
The woman, jailed for abetting rape of her underage daughter and who sold her newborns to unknown persons, confessed she did so for money. The accused along with her live-in partner, both residing at Baina – the former red-light area – was arrested for the offence earlier this month.
“She had sold her two newborns four years ago for Rs 10,000 each. The couple does not know whom they had sold their babies to,” the officer said. The couple’s three other daughters, including the rape victim, have been sent to a boarding school.
An investigation into the case unearthed a larger network of baby-selling with revelations that four other women had sold their newborns to unidentified persons including a foreign national. “Many women in Baina have live-in partners with whom they bear a child, and eventually sell them for money. This has been a trend for a couple of years,” the officer disclosed.
The CB team is expected to question some Baina residents and other related individuals and agencies to achieve a breakthrough in the case.
