An All Women Police Station (AWPS) in Coimbatore’s Sulur town on Monday, June 10, arrested five persons, including two women, for allegedly trafficking children from Bihar to Coimbatore. The investigation revealed that a couple from Bihar, Anjali and Mahesh Kumar, who run a hotel in the Sulur area, trafficked two children to Coimbatore. A 15-day-old baby girl was purchased from a family in Bihar for Rs 1,500. The Sulur couple claimed that the family, which already has two sons, could not afford to raise another child. The baby was then sold for Rs 2.5 lakh.
Vijayan, a farmer from Sulur, became acquainted with Anjali and Mahesh Kumar, who promised to arrange a child for him for Rs 2.5 lakh, including official documents like an Aadhaar card and a birth certificate. Upon agreeing to the deal, Anjali contacted her mother, Poonam Devi, in Bihar. Poonam Devi, along with her younger daughter Megha Kumari, brought the 15-day-old baby to Sulur and handed her over to Anjali and Mahesh Kumar, who then sold the baby to Vijayan for the agreed amount.
The child trafficking operation came to light when a local social activist reported the incident to the District Child Trafficking Prevention Unit and Childline. The Childline team confirmed the sale of the babies and alerted the Karumathampatti All Women Police Station.
Under the supervision of Karumathampatti DSP Thangaramani and the AWPS Inspector Sumathi, a special team was formed to investigate the case. Anjali and Mahesh Kumar were immediately arrested, and during interrogation revealed that they had previously sold a male child to a lorry driver from Andhra Pradesh for Rs 5 lakh. The police rescued both children and took the couple into custody.
Further investigation led to the arrest of Vijayan, who admitted to paying Rs 2.5 lakh for the baby. The police then conducted a raid at Anjali and Mahesh Kumar's hotel and discovered that Poonam Devi and Megha Kumari had brought the baby from Bihar. Both were summoned to Coimbatore and arrested. Poonam Devi and Megha Kumari confessed to purchasing the child from a family in Bihar for Rs 1,500.
The police are now conducting a thorough investigation to determine if any other children have been trafficked. The arrested individuals were produced before the Sulur Criminal Court and remanded in custody.
This incident comes less than a month after a 37-year-old woman and six others were arrested for their involvement in sex trafficking in Chennai. Two girl children aged 17 and 18 years were rescued and taken into a government shelter home.