West Bengal couple held for selling child to arrange funds for alcohol

Kolkata: West Bengal Police on Sunday arrested a couple for selling their six-month-old child to arrange funds to purchase alcohol.

The grandfather of the child, who is believed to have acted as the middleman in the matter, has also been arrested.

However, the police are yet to rescue the child.

The incident took place at Panihati in North 24 Parganas district.

The accused, identified as Jaideb Chowdhury (father), Sathi Chowdhury (mother) and Kanai Chowdhury (grandfather) are currently being questioned about the person to whom they have sold their child.

Also, the police is further investigating the involvement of a child trafficking racket in the entire matter.

Neighbours brought the matter to the police after they came to know that the child is missing. Whenever they enquired about the child, the couple answered that the child was at a relative’s place.

Suspecting a foul-play, they brought it to the notice of the local councillor, who informed the police.

The police will present the arrested trio at a district court on Sunday and will seek custody for them.

“Our prime aim is to extract information from them in the matter, so that we can carry forward our investigation and rescue the child,” an investigating official said.

The local people informed officials that the couple used to be intoxicated almost throughout the day and often they had severe quarrels within the family and at times with the neighbours. But none could imagine that urge for alcohol would push them into taking such a nasty step of selling their own child.

With inputs from IANS