Poverty drives woman to sell her toddler to repay loan

A poverty-stricken woman was forced to sell off her child for a paltry ₹9,000 to repay her bank loan in Bihar's Araria district, an official said on Saturday.

- RAMASHANKAR

On learning about the incident, the police immediately swung into action.

They recovered the child from his relative's house, where he was kept before being handed over finally to a Bengaluru-based issueless woman. The woman was in search of a child and had promised to pay ₹2 lakh in exchange for the child.

While the child's parents—Mohammad Haroon and Rehana Khatoon—are in police custody for questioning, the boy has been handed over to the child welfare committee on Saturday.

Rehana Khatoon claimed that her brother Tanveer sold the child to a co-villager, Mohammad Arif, and paid her ₹9,000 on Sunday. She told the police that she was not aware of the amount Tanveer had received from Arif for selling her son. Arif's relatives are claiming he paid ₹45,000 to get possession of the child.