In a recent crackdown on inter-state child trafficking, the Mumbai Police Crime Branch arrested a 37-year-old woman, Gudiya Khan, on Tuesday for allegedly selling her three-month-old daughter to another woman in Visakhapatnam last December.
Tejankar, an inspector with the Crime Branch, reported that out of Khan’s six children, four have been placed with the Mumbai Child Welfare Committee, while the two youngest, both under two years of age, remain with her.
The investigation gained momentum when five women were recently apprehended in Mumbai in connection with child trafficking. During interrogation, one of the women, Reena, revealed that Khan had sold her daughter to a woman named Vishala Venkatesh in Visakhapatnam. This led the Crime Branch officials to Visakhapatnam, where they secured the custody of the child and recorded Vishala’s statement, shedding more light on the trafficking network.
Subsequently, the Crime Branch team located Gudiya Khan in Vapi and arrested her. She was then transported to Mumbai, where a DNA test confirmed her maternity of the infant.
Although Khan claims that all six children are hers, further DNA tests are scheduled to verify this assertion.
Tejankar also detailed that Gudiya Khan had been living in temporary tents in Vapi after divorcing two of her husbands and had resorted to making her children beg for survival. In November 2023, she met Reena during a visit to Mumbai. Influenced by Reena, Khan agreed to sell her child for Rs 1.6 lakh.
Only last month, Visakhapatnam experienced another case of human trafficking where Telugu youths were trafficked to Cambodia under the guise of a job scam.
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