Six days after a seven-day-old child was allegedly kidnapped from a home in Bhagwanpura in Liloria village in Vadodara district’s Waghodia taluka, the Vadodara rural police on Tuesday traced the newborn to Bihar, where he was allegedly sold to an army jawan for Rs 4 lakh.
Six people have been arrested by police, including a villager and a friend of the child’s family, for reportedly conspiring to sell the kid to a childless couple from Bihar.
“Using human intelligence, we discovered that one Kalpesh Rathod had sold the kid to army jawan Narendra Ranjan for Rs 4 lakh,” stated Superintendent of Police Sudhir Desai. We took Rathod into custody and interrogated him thoroughly. He revealed that Ranjan had approached Rathod to find him a baby that he could buy for Rs 4 lakh.
Police said that Kalpesh Rathod established contact with one Pravin Chunara, who in turn contacted Kalidas Devipujak, a local resident of the village. When Devipujak informed the accused that the village had a newborn baby, the accused allegedly planned the kidnapping.
Devipujak and co-accused Raman Rathod kidnapped the baby as the family was sleeping in their hut at 2 a.m. on October 20. They gave the baby over to Kalpesh Rathod, who delivered it to Ranjan.
“We’ve dispatched a team to Bihar to rescue the child.” The army jawan accused will be arrested. In Vadodara, we have arrested Kalpesh Rathod, Pravin Chunara, Kalidas Devipujak, and Raman Rathod. They would be charged with kidnapping under the proper sections of the law, as well as the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, which prohibits the sale and purchase of children,” Desai told The Indian Express.
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 includes punishment for the sale and procurement of children for any purpose including illegal adoption.