Gang sells abducted children to childless couples at Rs 1.2 lakh in Andhra Pradesh

Visakhapatnam police busted a child abduction gang following the arrest of four members, including two women.
Commissioner of Police RK Meena (R)
Commissioner of Police RK Meena (R)

VISAKHAPATNAM: The city police busted a child abduction gang following the arrest of four members, including two women. Three persons were also arrested on a charge of purchasing children. Addressing mediapersons here on Friday, Commissioner of Police RK Meena said the gang got into abduction of children from isolated places and later selling them to childless couples. 

The gang abducted five children and sold four of them for Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.2 lakh each. The arrested have been identified as kingpin B Nagamani, J Anand alias Chandu alias Sekhar, T Sumanth Kumar and M Lakshmi, all residents of Visakhapatnam. Two more accomplices M Jyothi and Ch Devi were arrested on a charge of assisting the gang.

Meena said the police busted the gang following investigation into a child abduction case at Simhachalam, which was reported on August 5. He said four children were rescued and all of them were handed over to ICDS officials. They will be restored to their parents soon.

The Police Commissioner said it all began when N Kanthamma from Paderu lodged a complaint in Gopalapatnam police station on August 5 that her 2-year-old son Abhiram was abducted by one Sekhar when she had gone to attend nature’s call. After registering a case, the police had formed a special team and took the accused into their custody and rescued the boy with the help of CCTV camera footage.
During further investigation, it was revealed that Chandu alias Sekhar was not alone and there was a child abduction gang operating since 2016, Meena said. 

Kidnappers used to conduct recce: police 

He said Nagamani, a resident of Arilova, asked Sumanth, with whom she allegedly had an illicit relationship, that her sister Satyavathi in Eluru was in need of children. He hatched a plan to abduct a child and hand over him to Satyavathi so that they could earn easy money.In November 2016, the duo abducted an 8-month-old girl, who was with a beggar near VUDA Park and sold the baby to Satyavathi’s husband B Rambabu for Rs 50,000. After the incident, Sumanth went to Vizianagaram. But Nagamani decided to commit more offences to earn easy money. 

In 2017, she discussed the idea with Anand, an auto driver from Arilova. Anand sold his daughter to Md Ziauddin for Rs 1 lakh, Meena said.Continuing their crimes, the duo abducted a girl from Arilova in July 2017. However, they handed over the baby to the police saying that they found her in some area. Later, they disappeared. 

In November 2018, they abducted a  2-year-old boy from Bheemili and sold him to Ch Eswara Rao at Nakkapalle for Rs 1.2 lakh. The duo ran out of luck as they were caught during the investigation of Simhachalam child abduction case.

DCP (Zone II) B Uday Bhaskar said the duo used to conduct recce at various places in auto to commit offences. They target children of 2-month to 3-year-old hailing from poor families as they cannot identify their parents. “Nagamani, who runs prostitution, has many contacts. In WhatsApp, she shared photographs of abducted children. To whomever they sell, the duo inform them that these children are orphans, separated from parents, and convince them,” Uday Bhaskar said.

4 children rescued, 3 purchasers held
The gang abducted five children and sold four of them for Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.2 lakh each to childless couples. Three persons were arrested on a charge of purchasing children. Four children were rescued and all of them were handed over to ICDS officials. They will be restored to their parents soon 

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