Delhi Police has arrested four persons, including a 30-year-old woman who had set a deal of Rs two lakhs to sell her one-month-old child for cash. Police said that to nab the accused and recover the baby safely, two police personnel posed as decoy customers and set a deal of Rs two lakhs to purchase the baby.

The accused have been identified as Praveen Khatoon (45), Santosh (35), Madhu Singh (30) and their only male associate Satish (35). Madhu Singh, a resident of Uttam Nagar wanted to sell her one-month-old baby for cash through the three alleged brokers.

According to Sagar Singh Kalsi, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), North district, on Saturday, the police team at Sabzi Mandi in North Delhi received information about involved of Praveen Khatoon in selling minor children and acting on the tip off, a raiding team was formed comprising of Sub-Inspector Lalit Kumar along with staff.

“Constable Rakesh and Woman Constable  Anju, posed themselves as a fake couple and  approached the suspects to purchase a child. After following due procedure, the informer introduced  Praveen Khatoon and her associate Satish. Praveen Khatoon and Satish told Constable Rakesh that a woman Santosh, who resides at Mangolpuri would arrange a minor child,” said the DCP.

“After that the police personnel who posed as decoy customers reached Manoglpuri wherein they met Santosh who then called Madhu at the spot who came with her one-month female child at her house.

After finalizing the deal, on the pretext of full payment, Constables -- Rakesh and Anju brought all the four alleged along with minor girl child at Barfkhana, Subzi Mandi here where Constable Rakesh paid cash Rs  50,000 to Praveen Khatoon,” said the DCP.

“Praveen Khatoon kept Rs 10,000 as her share and then handed over Rs 30,000 to Madhu, Rs. 4,000 to Satish, Rs 6,000 to Santosh. After receiving the amount, accused Madhu handed over the custody of the child to constable Anju. Then constable Rakesh alerted his staff who nabbed all the four accused persons and recovered the  amount from their possession,” the DCP said.

“A case was registered at Subzi Mandi police station. During interrogation, Praveen Khatoon and  Santosh were operating the gang of selling and purchasing minor children. They searched for persons, who intended to buy their children for money and made arrangements to sell minor children and Madhu  wanted to sell her one month old female child for money,” said the DCP.

“Mobile phones of accused Praveen Khatoon and Satish were analysed and found that there are many photographs of minor children found in their devices,” police said, adding that all the previous antecedents of the accused are being verified.