A nexus that preyed on poor, sold newborn boys to the rich

From egg donors to traffickers

- Jignasa Sinha

The infant boy was barely four days old when he was taken from a tribal village in Rajasthan. His parents, struggling with poverty and already caring for multiple children, handed him over toa stranger who promised them quick money. Hours later, hewas ona long journey to Delhi, cradled in the lap of a trafficker. By the time police found him—in a parked car in a bustling market—he had already been sold.

The baby is one of three rescued ina sprawling investigation by Delhi Police that has unearthed a cross-border baby trafficking network operated by a group of women—most of them once egg donors—who now face charges of conspiracy and corruption. All three babies are in the care of the child welfare committee, while police are still trying to locate a fourth baby.

The 2,000-page chargesheet, filed earlier this month, names 11 accused, including six women, and paintsa chilling picture of an organised ring that targeted vulnerable families in tribal belts of Rajasthan and Gujarat, bought male infants for as little as 1.5 lakh, and resold them to affluent families in Delhi for five to ten times the amount.

At the centre of the racket is Pooja Singh, 37, a former egg donor who was deemed ineligible to donate further and allegedly turned to baby trafficking with the help of other women in similar financial distress. “Their husbands were either jobless or earned little,” a senior officer said. “They already had connections at IVF centres, and they knew of families who wanted children—especially boys.”

Pooja’s inner circle included Vimla (59), considered her second-in-command; Anjali (36), previously held in a CBI case for child trafficking; and middlemen Jitender and Ranjit who sourced infants from rural India. All of them are in judicial custody.