Baby Sold on Facebook Found Safe in India, Reunited With Mother
A baby sold on Facebook has been recovered by police in India, and three people have been arrested in connection with the attempted sale of the newborn. The infant's mother was the one to alert authorities of the deal when she saw her father come into a large amount of cash.
According to reports, Feroz Khan abducted his own grandson from the hospital after telling his daughter, Noori, that the baby was stillborn. He then sold the child for $830 to a hospital nurse, who then sold the child for $5,500 to a laboratory assistant at the hospital.
The assistant, named Gurpreet Singh, then placed an ad on Facebook to sell the child yet again. He received an offer from a Delhi businessman who bought the infant for approximately $14,750 and arrived in Ludhiana to pick up the child. He is now under investigation, along with the lab assistant, nurse, and grandfather, who have all been arrested for kidnapping.
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The baby's mother noticed that her father, Khan, suddenly had a large amount of cash on his person and contacted authorities. They were able to track down the infant and reunite him with his mother before taking all of those involved in the case into custody.
"We will be interrogating the businessman who paid the money to buy the baby," Satish Malhotra, senior police officer in Ludhiana, told Agence France Presse.
Khan told authorities he wanted to sell the child because his daughter was divorced and he wanted to arrange another marriage for her.
"He thought he should get rid of the child of his daughter from her first husband by selling him off," Ishwar Singh, Ludhiana Commissioner of Police, told NDTV.
According to Yahoo! News India, thousands of children are sold within, and out of, India. India's National Human Rights Commission has estimated that approximately 60,000 children are reported missing in the country every year, and more than two-thirds are never found.
