Vijayawada couple held for buying baby girl

Bhadrachalam: The parents of a 11-month-old girl sold her off to a couple from Vijayawada for Rs 60,000 on September 18. However, the police, on a complaint by the grandmother, arrested the couple and handed over the baby to the grandmother in the presence of ICDS Community Development Project Officer Rajeswari.

According to Bhadrachalam town SI P Karunakar, Yasam Santosh and his wife Varalakshmi of Kaliveru in Charla mandal have been residing in Brahmana Veedhi of the temple town for the past two months.

Through the network of their relatives, the couple, citing financial difficulties as the reason, approached Ravuri Jayakant of Vijayawada and his spouse on September 18, when they arrived here to have darshan of the deity and sold their second daughter, Milky (11 months) to the couple for Rs 60,000.

Recently, Lakshmi Kantamma, Santosh’s mother, visited her son in Bhadrachalam and grew suspicious about the missing grandchild. When she failed to elicit any response from her son about the baby, she lodged a complaint with the Bhadrachalam police.

The police with the help of the CCTV footage traced the movements of Yasam Santosh and the vehicle number of the Vijayawada-based couple who purchased the baby. Meanwhile, the couple came to know about the police investigation and reached Bhadrachalam.

The police arrested them at the bus station here and handed over the baby girl to her grandmother in the presence of ICDS officials.