![\"Trafficking](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-132318777,imgsize-1042850,width-400,height-225,resizemode-75\/arrestjpg.jpg\" "\\"photo")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\nNew Delhi:<\/span> Eight more people have been arrested in an inter-state infant trafficking case that was unearthed last month.The fresh action has taken the total number of arrests to 23. Police have rescued three more infants, raising the total number of rescued babies to nine.Among those arrested this month are two who were allegedly involved in the trafficking, four people who had bought babies from the syndicate, and a couple who sold their infant.The racket came to light in June after a Good Samaritan alerted police about a woman in Paharganj who was allegedly seen carrying different infants at different times. The tip-off led the investigators to uncover the racket.During the initial phase of the probe in early June, police arrested 13 people, including Dr Viveki Kapoor, the alleged owner of Heera Multispeciality Hospital. The police also rescued five infants last month. Later in June, in a raid, police arrested two more people — Garima Jain and her father-in-law Satish. The investigators also rescued an infant.Investigators alleged that the syndicate, allegedly functioning from the hospital, was a racket of buying babies from low-income families and selling the infants to childless couples.On Friday, police said the probe had led to the arrest of the biological parents of one of the trafficked infants. DCP (central) Rohit Rajbir Singh said Sugnaben and Kantibhai Gamar, the parents of a child from Gujarat, had allegedly sold their baby to Sahiba, alias Kaliya, and Shankar. The infant was passed on to Jyoti, alias Kamlesh, Pratibha and other members of the syndicate. They were arrested. Police sources said the infant from Gujarat was sold for Rs 2 lakh.Among the eight arrested was Ketki Gupta of Rishikesh, who had been married for 10 years and was childless. She had allegedly bought a boy from Dr Viveki and Pratibha for around Rs 4 lakh.In one case, police alleged that a woman who did not wish to keep her newborn contacted Dr Viveki Kapoor for delivery. After childbirth, the infant was allegedly retained by the syndicate without any payment being made to the biological mother. She was not arrested.Additional DCP (central) Prashant Chaudhary said another accused, Ram Prakash Nishad, a retired teacher, allegedly purchased a male child in 2025 from Viveki Kapoor. Abha Singh and Amit Singh of Uttarakhand, who have a nine-year-old daughter, allegedly approached Pratibha and Viveki Kapoor to obtain a male child and paid around Rs 5 lakh.Police also arrested Jyoti, an ASHA worker from Gurgaon, who allegedly acted as a middlewoman in the sale of infants. Shankar, who was allegedly associated with Sahiba, alias Kaliya, is accused of helping in the transport and the handover of infants to other members of the syndicate.The rescued infants are being placed in the adoption system in accordance with the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) guidelines.Investigators said the probe has uncovered child trafficking transactions involving several lakh rupees. Financial transactions through multiple bank accounts have surfaced, and police are tracing the money trail.In another instance, police said a baby boy was allegedly procured from a couple in Gujarat for Rs 2 lakh and later sold to a couple from Panipat, Sunny Arora and Ritu Arora, for a substantially higher amount.Police said the investigation has so far found no evidence of an IVF or surrogacy racket. Instead, the syndicate allegedly operated on a demand-and-supply model, sourcing infants from willing biological parents and selling them to childless couples at inflated prices.According to investigators, prospective adoptive parents approached members of the syndicate, who then identified biological parents willing to part with their newborns and facilitated the illegal transactions.<\/div>\n