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 mi
ddleman 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.