A new-born baby was put up for auction. How I busted the racket
“A baby has been put for sale,” a source informed me. I decided to buy the baby. This, so that I could expose the buying and selling of babies at a hospital at Ameerpet in Hyderabad. The situation was quite tricky. I should react immediately and promptly before the baby got sold off and the sale closed. At the same time, I should not find myself on the wrong side of the law while engaging in this investigation. I called up the doctor and expressed an interest to see the baby as I was interested. There was no haggling about the amount on the phone. “Money is not an issue,” I informed the doctor because she said she would hand over the baby to whoever offered more money. “I’m coming over. Keep the baby,” I told the doctor. The incident took place in the early 1990s.
With a friend of mine, I landed at the hospital in as less time as I could. If I had to expose the goings on in the hospital about sale of babies, I should have authentic information. Getting information first hand was the best in such a case.
I held the infant in my arms. “What is the price you are willing to pay?” the doctor asked me. “You will have to pay a heavy price for this,” I responded but not loudly. I said it to myself deciding that the doctor will have to be taken to task for selling a baby.
“Can I come tomorrow morning and take the baby?” I asked the doctor after assuring her about the amount I was willing to pay. It was something like Rs 5,000. “I am getting more enquiries and more money is being offered. Because of the interest that you have shown, I can wait only until tomorrow morning,” the doctor said with that warning.
It was a different scene altogether in the morning. I wrote a detailed account of how the doctor at the nursing home had put up a baby for sale. With the report published in the newspaper, the local police acted promptly. They raided the nursing home, found the baby, verified my report to be true and rescued the baby. The new born baby which was only a few days old was handed over to a registered charity home by the police to be taken care of.
From what I gathered later, the new born baby was an unwanted baby for the mother who had left the infant behind in the hospital itself. Such cases, I was given to understand were common in the hospital and therefore the sale of babies was also common. The worst part of the sale was that the babies were put on auction and the highest bidder would get to take home the baby. The doctor was warned by the police against engaging in selling of babies and no serious case was registered against her but an end was put to the racket.
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