Rourkela: Police have busted a child sale racket and arrested five women and two men in the city.
According to police, the accused used to target poor families and lure them to sell their children. After a deal was finalised, the racketeers used to take the child for selling at either Jharkhand or Raigarh in neighbouring Chhattisgarh, police said.
Plant Site police had begun investigating the racket following a complaint by one Seema Khuntia (40), a resident of Timber Colony in Rourkela, on July 23.
The seven accused were arrested on Sunday and later forwarded to court. They were identified as Seema Agrawal (45) alias Seema Garg of Janata Nivas Lane near Daily Market, Sarita Agrawal (50), Neeta Agrawal (44) and Nikhil Agrawal (25) of DAV School Lane, Asha Devi (38) of Gurudwara Road area, Sumit Agrawal (21) of Power House Road area and Sheela Agrawal (38) of Bisra Road area.
Another accused, Sangeeta Agrawal, is absconding.
The complainant told police that Sangeeta and Neeta had contacted her on July 23 and persuaded her to sell her 18-month-old granddaughter to them. They told Seema that the selling price of a girl was Rs 30,000-Rs 40,000 and Rs 3-4 lakh for a boy.
The deal was finalized and Seema arrived with her granddaughter at Idgah Padia in Mahtab Road area at 8 pm on July 23. Instead of Sangeeta and Neeta, she found Sarita, Seema and a man waiting for her there. They assured the woman that Sangeets and Neeta had sent them to take the girl.
Seema handed over the girl to them and asked for money. At this, they told her to come to Janata Nivas Lane.
However, the complainant couldn’t find the accused at Janata Nivas Lane. She searched for them for an hour and then lodged a complaint at Plant Site police station.
