Ghaziabad police on Thursday arrested four individuals, including two women, for their alleged role in a child trafficking racket that supplied newborns and infants to childless couples, officials said.
The arrests are linked to the kidnapping of a one-year-old boy, who was taken by two unidentified men from outside his home in Loni on August 4.
The accused have been identified as Naved Ansari (19) from Loni, Afsar Ali (28) and Shaista Waseem (35) from Shamli, and Sandhya Chauhan (37) from Muzaffarnagar.
According to officials, Shaista had approached Afsar to arrange a one-year-old boy for a woman named Ranjana, a nurse at a private hospital in Moradabad.
Afsar then involved Naved, who allegedly kidnapped the child from outside his home around 4:30 pm on August 4 before fleeing on a motorcycle. Fearing retaliation from the boy’s family, the duo later abandoned him at a local woman’s house and escaped.
“With the help of CCTV footage, the boy was traced and the four accused were arrested. Naved and Afsar were promised ₹25,000 each to deliver the child to Shaista, who was to hand him over to Sandhya in Muzaffarnagar. Sandhya had circulated the boy’s picture to eight of her contacts, one of whom is a nurse in Moradabad,” said Siddharth Gautam, ACP, Loni Circle.
Officials said Sandhya allegedly shared the boy’s photo with contacts in Delhi, Bijnor, Moradabad, Roorkee, and Amroha. She later confessed that the nurse agreed to take the kidnapped boy after striking a ₹2.5 lakh deal with a childless couple.
Police recovered multiple photographs of other infants and minors, along with pricing details, text messages, and voice chats from Sandhya’s phone. Investigators revealed that Sandhya runs a marriage bureau in Muzaffarnagar and is in contact with childless couples seeking children.
“Sandhya also disclosed that the Moradabad nurse had previously arranged an infant boy for a childless couple in Dehradun last year. The nurse, who is the fifth accused in the case, is currently absconding. The recovered evidence, including photos and voice chats, indicates a demand for fair-skinned infant boys and suggests the existence of a larger trafficking network,” the ACP added.
The case has now been transferred to Ghaziabad Police’s human trafficking unit. Naved and Afsar were arrested from Nishant Colony, while Shaista and Sandhya were caught near Khadkhadi railway station in Loni.
An FIR under BNS Section 143(4) (trafficking of a child) was registered at Tronica City police station on August 4. (Agencies)
