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Child-trafficker arrested in Hyderabad

Shireen in Hyderabad

The Hyderabad police have arrested Sankala Peter Subbaiah, the prime accused in a child trafficking case, from a city hotel.

Police Commissioner S R Sukumara said that along with Subbiah, three other accused -Govind Jyothirmai, Suchitra and Bala Saraiah -- were also arrested on Sunday.

"Subbaiah has committed many illegal activities while procuring infant children and sending them to foreign countries for adoption," the commissioner said.

The accused had converted the adoption process into a lucrative business, he added.

Subbaiah, 49, had floated the Good Samaritan Evangelical and Social Welfare Association, with headquarters in Mahendra Hills. Friday night, the police raided the crèche run by the association and rescued 56 infants, of which 52 were females, who had been "procured" from poor families for adoption by childless foreigners.

The case has been handed over to the criminal investigation department of the state police.

Forty of the 56 infants are being looked after in the GSESWA premises, under police supervision.

Subbaiah's modus operandi, police said, was to identify poor families, particularly tribals or dalits, with female children. He procured the infants for Rs 2,000-3,000 per child. He would then get in touch with foreigners through brokers, who were paid Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 per 'sale'. After completing all legal formalities Subbaiah would sell an infant for anything between United States $ 2,000 to 3,000.

In the last six months,18 children were thus sent abroad - 17 to the US and one to Denmark.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, meanwhile, has asked the CID to expedite the investigation. Naidu asked the officials to depute teams to the tribal hamlets of Nalgonda district and probe the reasons leading to the sale of newborns.

He also asked the Women Development and Child Welfare Department to look into the functioning of various crèches and orphanages in the state.

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