Barabanki: Four people, including a couple here have been booked for allegedly selling their two-month-old child to a businessman from Lucknow for Rs 1.6 lakh, police said on Sunday.
The incident came to light on Friday night, prompting police action that resulted in recovery of the child from a businessman's house in Lucknow on Saturday, officials said.
Police said that the infant is now under the protection of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
According to District Coordinator of the Child Helpline, Manoj Kumar, the couple from Kotwali area had handed over their child for adoption to Mohammad Yasir, a scrap business owner from Lucknow, on March 5.
"Yasir, who runs a business in Kaiserbagh Ghasiyari Mandi, allegedly emotionally blackmailed the couple, who were struggling financially, into giving up their infant," Station House Officer (SHO) Alok Mani Tripathi said.
"Yasir was detained, and the child was returned to Barabanki on Saturday evening," the SHO said.
Based on a complaint police have booked the parents along with Yasir and his wife in the matter.
The officer said that police is currently investigating the involvement of other people in the gang responsible for the illegal transaction.
The accused father, who already has two other children, cited financial constraint as reason for taking this step. "I was hopeful that the third child would have a better future," the father told media persons in Barabanki on Sunday.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
