Woman sells baby for dowry money in Bihar

Patna: In a shocking incident, an elderly woman allegedly sold her infant grandson for Rs.50,000 to arrange for dowry for her daughter's marriage in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district, police said Saturday.

An FIR was lodged by Rukhsana Khatoon, whose 15-day-old child was allegedly sold by her mother-in-law to raise money for dowry for her daughter's marriage, district police official Pramod Kumar Singh said.

"Police have began an investigation into the incident after a case was lodged," said Singh.

This incident took place at Chainpur Wajid village under Manyari police station in Muzaffarpur, about 70 km from here Friday.

Rukhsana's husband is a daily wage labourer, who is currently working outside the state.

Singh said that main accused mother-in-law and her daughter were absconding from the village after the incident came to light.

"Police have began operations to arrest them," he added.

According to police officials, Rukhsana in her complaint said that her mother-in-law persuaded her to accompany her to show the child to a doctor in Muzaffarpur town.

"My mother-in-law went inside doctor's clinic with my child and soon returned empty handed. When i asked about my child, she told me that she had sold him to raise money for my sister in law's dowry."

Rukhsana also informed police that her mother-in-law repeatedly accused her of not bringing dowry when she got married to her son three years ago.

"My mother-in-law justified her decision to sell my son by saying that it was compensation for my failure to bring in dowry," Rukhsana said.

Village panchayat mukhiya (head) Aariful Rahman confirmed the incident to local police officials.