MP Horror: Investigation into Abandoned Toddler in Sheopur Leads to Child Trafficking Racket in Indore, Claims of Physical Abuse Surface

A business man and his wife from Guna, Madhya Pradesh were recently arrested after they abandoned their 2 and a half year old daughter on the highway as they believed that she brought bad luck to their family business.

The child was found on National Highway-552 in Sheopur’s Soinkalan when police answered an emergency call made by a bystander. The authorities rushed to the spot and informed the local Child Welfare Committee (CWC) who took her under their care after conducting medical tests.

While the case in itself was shocking enough, the investigation into the incident has now led to something far more sinister. The police conducting the investigation has claimed that the couple who abandoned the child had not adopted her legally but ‘purchased’ her through an illegal child in Indore for Rs. 1 Lakh, leading the police to believe that there is a child trafficking racket operating in the city.

After the police traced the couple who abandoned the child on the highway using CCTV footage and other evidence at their disposal, they confessed to buying the child from a beauty parlour owner in Indore. Authorities involved with the case informed that the racket likely targets children from underprivileged backgrounds and ‘sells’ them to highest bidders.

The story, however, does not end here either. A woman from Bhopal has now come forward and claimed that she worked as a caretaker for the child for a salary of Rs. 20,000. She claims that the child was subjected to physical abuse and neglect and the couple also lied her about the child’s origin.

While the couple initially had an FIR lodged against them for abandoning a minor in unsafe conditions, after the whole trafficking angle came to light, additional sections pertaining to child trafficking and Juvenile Justice Act has been brought against them and they have been remanded into police custody by a local court.

The police is also working to find the biological parents of the child to ensure her safety and also understand the inner working of the trafficking racket.

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