A repeat offender the brain behind infant trafficking racket

HYDERABAD: A day after a woman child trafficker was arrested by RGI Airport police sleuths, five more persons of the racket, including the the kingpin Gangadhar Reddy were arrested by Cyberabad police on Wednesday. One more infant was rescued on Wednesday apart from the child who was already rescued on Tuesday.
Deputy Commissioner of police (Shamshabad Zone) PV Padmaja during a press conference said that the based on the confession given by the already arrested Manga, five others- Gangadhar Reddy, C Srinivas, T Shirisha Reddy, Sharada, K Lakshmi- were arrested.
During the interrogation of Gangadhar, police came to know that he is a repeat offender and previously he was arrested by Madannapet police, Gandhinagar and Chatrinaka police for trafficking infants.
The prime accused, who previously worked in few fertility centers, used to interact with various women who wish to become pregnant through IVF procedure and surrogacy. After quitting the job, Gangadhar became an agent in facilitating the interested childless couples by selling the infants, who were bought from parents who are financially very poor and have many children or from parents residing in tribal areas.
Till now, Gangadhar traded 12 infants and he claimed before investigators that in six cases he facilitated adoption process legally. ``In another six infant cases, three infants were rescued by Hyderabad police in the past and in the remaining three infants, now RGI Airport police rescued two infants and we are making efforts to rescue the missing third infant,’’ Padmaja said.
Officials said that the other five accused involved in the case used to either search for parents who want to sell the infants or search for prospective buyers. ``As per plan, about three months ago one lady by name Vani has brought one female infant to Shamshabad. Gangadhar along with Manga and Srinivas have sold the infant for Rs 1.60 lakh to one Tahseen Pasha through Manga, Sreenu and Sirisha,’’ Padmaja said.
On March 22, the accused Gangadhar, Sharada, Lakshmi and Sirisha have gone to Shivapuram tribal areas of Macherla and brought one more female infant from one Ramesh for an amount of Rs. 83,000 and handed over to Manga, to put the infant for sale.
Police based on a tip off, police conducted raid on Rajiv Gruhakalpa, Rallaguda, Shamshabad village on Tuesday and first arrested Manga an rescued a girl infant.