Delhi Police busts child trafficking gang; 4 held, 2 children rescued

The Railway Unit of Delhi Police has dismantled a child-trafficking network, arresting four traffickers and rescuing two children, including an infant, officials reported on Monday.

According to the police, the gang was involved in trafficking children under the guise of adoption and had been operating since 2023. Their arrest has helped solve three cases spanning from 2023 to 2025.

The investigation began after an incident was reported at New Delhi Railway Station on October 17 last year, when a woman complained that her two-and-a-half-year-old son had been kidnapped while she was asleep in the station’s main hall, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Railway) KPS Malhotra.

CCTV footage showed an unidentified woman taking the child in an auto-rickshaw. Police traced the auto-rickshaw driver, who revealed that he had dropped the suspect near the Badarpur-Faridabad toll gate.

Further investigation uncovered another case from July 31, when a three-year-old boy was kidnapped from the railway station’s ticket counter hall. CCTV analysis confirmed that the same woman was involved in both kidnappings, using an auto-rickshaw to escape to the same location.

On January 21, a third case emerged when a woman’s four-month-old infant was abducted from the Food Court Waiting Hall at New Delhi Railway Station. With three similar cases under investigation, the police formed a special team.

A large-scale rescue operation was launched, with multiple teams reviewing footage from 700 CCTV cameras and tracking the suspect’s movements through phone records. The breakthrough came when the suspect was seen boarding an auto-rickshaw from the railway station’s main gate.

Tracking the vehicle’s registration led police to Badarpur, where further inquiries helped locate the suspect couple in Faridabad. Following raids, four people were arrested.

Among those apprehended was a woman and her husband, who were responsible for abducting infants from the railway station after conducting reconnaissance. The husband, Suraj, acted as a middleman, arranging transactions between traffickers and buyers.

Another arrested woman, a clerk for an advocate, forged adoption documents to make the trafficking appear legitimate.

Additionally, a self-proclaimed doctor, who had only completed the 10th grade, was found to be misrepresenting trafficked infants as abandoned children to childless couples. She exploited legal loopholes and medical misrepresentation to facilitate illegal adoptions.

Police revealed that the gang targeted infants in crowded public areas like railway stations. The main suspect discreetly kidnapped children and used planned escape routes to avoid detection. Another woman then created fake adoption documents to deceive adoptive parents.

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Suraj managed financial transactions and acted as the link between kidnappers and buyers. The gang used coded language and frequently changed phone numbers to evade authorities.

The fake doctor falsely labelled trafficked children as abandoned or illegitimate, using hospital contacts to introduce them to couples seeking adoption. These infants were then sold to unsuspecting couples who believed they were legally adopting. To make the process appear legitimate, forged adoption papers, medical records, and affidavits were created.

During the operation, police rescued two kidnapped children. The child abducted in October 2024 was found in Loni, Ghaziabad, while the infant kidnapped in January 2025 was recovered from Paharganj, Delhi. Both children had been placed with childless couples or families seeking a male child. They have now been moved to the Children Welfare Centre for protection and rehabilitation, the DCP stated.

(With inputs from PTI)