New Delhi: The investigation into the inter-state newborn trafficking racket busted by Delhi Police last week has hit a roadblock, with several suspected biological parents of trafficked infants and key intermediaries becoming untraceable after news of the crackdown surfaced.Police teams probing the case had recently reached Rajasthan’s Mount Abu region, where investigators were hoping to identify and question at least 10-12 sets of biological parents believed to have either sold or handed over their newborn children to members of the trafficking network. However, police sources said the operation has become increasingly difficult as many of the individuals under scrutiny have switched off their mobile phones and disappeared from their known locations.Investigators are also struggling to trace a middleman who was expected to help establish links between the trafficking syndicate and the biological parents. The individual, who was believed to possess information about multiple transactions and identities of parents involved, has also become unreachable.“They have largely scattered and gone off the grid, making the task of tracing them much more difficult,” a police source said, adding that many of the suspects are locals and familiar with the terrain, making it easier for them to evade investigators.The development comes days after Central District Police unearthed the interstate child trafficking syndicate and arrested 13 accused, including alleged traffickers, mediators, buyers, hospital owner Dr Viveki, and the alleged supplier of infants, Saybabhai Ghamar.The racket was first exposed on June 5 when police conducted a decoy operation near RK Ashram Metro Station in Paharganj and apprehended three accused allegedly attempting to sell a newborn baby. The operation led investigators to a larger network spread across Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.According to police, Dr Viveki, owner of Heera Multi Speciality Hospital in Begumpur in Rohini, played a key role in facilitating illegal adoptions by identifying prospective buyers among childless couples and arranging fabricated hospital, birth and delivery-related records to falsely establish parentage.So far, five infants have been rescued from Delhi, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, while investigators have uncovered transactions in which babies were allegedly purchased for Rs 1.5-2 lakh and sold for as much as Rs 6-9 lakh.Police said tracing the biological parents remains a crucial part of the investigation as it could help establish how the infants entered the trafficking network and whether more children were trafficked through the syndicate. Teams are continuing field inquiries and technical surveillance to identify those who have gone into hiding.
