Baby sold on Facebook: A kidnapped baby in India was sold via Facebook and was found in New Delhi, according to reports this week.
Feroz Khan, 47, is accused of kidnapping his grandson after it was born in the city of Ludhiana, according to AFP. He told his daughter that the infant was stillborn.
He reportedly sold the child to a nurse for $830, who later sold him for around $5,500 to a lab assistant. The boy was then sold for nearly $15,000 to a businessman in New Delhi, reported the Hindu Business Live.
NDTV reported that the baby was sold on Facebook by the hospital staff members.
The child was eventually located by police based on the mother’s complaint, police told the broadcaster.
“So he thought he should get rid off the child of her daughter from her first husband by selling him off,” Ludhiana Commissioner of Police Ishwar Singh said in elaborating on the case.
The grandfather and the others who sold the baby were arrested. Police are now searching for the businessman.
“All three people who conspired to sell the child have been arrested and we will be interrogating the businessman who paid the money to buy the baby,” Satish Malhotra, an officer in Ludhiana, told AFP.
Police have rescued the child and returned it to his mother, Noori Khan.
Indian police in 2011 admitted that there were more than 850 criminal gangs who specialize in kidnapping children for begging and prostitution. Such kidnappings were made famous in the Danny Boyle film “Slumdog Millionaire,” where the main character and his love interest are forced to beg for the leader of a gang.
