Bhubaneswar: A newborn baby girl of Odisha’s Balangir district, allegedly sold for Rs 20,000, was rescued by authorities late on Sunday.
According to sources, Neel Rana and his second wife Kanak Rana, a couple from Bagdor village in Bhalegaon panchayat under Titilagarh block, allegedly sold their newborn daughter for just Rs 20,000 to a person in Paikmal area of Bargarh district with the help of a local middleman named Ravi Machhkhand.
While the father claimed extreme poverty compelled him to sell the baby, the mother alleged that he acted on his own. ““I gave birth to a girl child at the Pipalpadar hospital. My husband later sold her without asking me,” she told a local channel.
The couple already has a 13-month-old daughter.
Following news reports on the incident, the district administration swiftly initiated a probe. Titilagarh police detained both the middleman and Neel Rana for questioning, while a joint team of police and child welfare committee (CWC) later rescued the baby from Paikmal.
The baby has been admitted to a hospital at Titlagarh for medical examination and care.
This incident came three months after a newborn boy was rescued by the CWC and Titilagarh police in the district. A widow had allegedly sold her two-day-old infant to a couple from Saintala through a middlewoman, Kuni Pasayat, for Rs 20,000. The baby was born on April 6 at the Mother and Child Hospital of Bhima Bhoi Medical College and Hospital.