Mangalore, May 25: In a case that points towards the possible presence of an illegal child adoption and child trafficking racket in Kerala and Karnataka, police have arrested a 48-year-old man from Kanhangad in Kasaragod along with three agents on charges of selling his two infant children with the help of a Mangalore based woman advocate.
The police have intensified the search for a Mangalore-based woman lawyer, through whom the one-year-old daughter and six-month-old son of Sulaiman were allegedly sold to unidentified persons in Mangalore probably in 2012 and 2013, Mr. Pradeep Kumar said.
The children were believed to have been exchanged for an amount ranging between 3.25 and 3.5 lakh rupees by paying an unspecified amount as commission to the intermediaries including the woman lawyer, who is at large.
Police have also registered a case against the children's mother, second wife of Sulaiman, who is said to have 11 children in two marriages. Mr. Kumar added the woman was not arrested as she has to take care of her infant. The arrested man, who has eight children from his first wife, confessed that he was forced to sell his children due to financial constraints, he said.
The lady lawyer was also believed to have acted as a facilitator in a similar incident in which a couple residing at the Tsunami colony here had sold their eight-month-old son to a childless couple in Kundapura town of Udupi district for Rs. 60,000 in April 2012 and their six-month-old boy to a couple in Mangalore in June last year for 1.5 lakh allegedly to lead a lavish life.
Police have registered a case against the arrested persons under IPC sections 370 (buying or disposing of any person as a slave) and 317 (crime against children by their parents) and were produced before the Hosdurg Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-I in Kanhangad.
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