New Delhi
The Delhi Police on Saturday said they will approach the Delhi Medical Council (DMC) to cancel the licences of a doctor involved in a recently busted interstate child trafficking racket, and also blacklist the hospital she allegedly owned and used to facilitate the trafficking of infants, officers aware of the matter said.
Police said that they ascertained the role of the medical practitioner, Dr Viveki, and Hira’s Multi Speciality Hospital in Begampur by questioning one of the syndicate’s coordinators, 34-year-old Pratibha. She had also worked as a lab technician at another hospital in southwest Delhi, and she likely ran the trafficking racket there too, two police officers said.
According to the officers, the second hospital in question, at Uttam Nagar, shut down a few months ago, after which Pratibha associated herself with the Begampur facility. Both Pratibha and Dr Viveki are currently in police custody.
Attempts by HT to contact the hospital over the past three days did not elicit a response.
One of the investigators cited above, requesting anonymity, said, “We have identified the hospital in Uttam Nagar and have started collecting information about the people who were running it. While Pratibha disclosed that she ran her illegal activities from that hospital also, we will verify her claims before proceeding with any legal action.”
On Thursday, deputy commissioner of police (central) Rohit Rajbir Singh said that police investigation revealed the Begumpur hospital “fabricated medical and supporting documents, including hospital records, delivery-related documents, birth-related records and other supporting papers, were arranged to falsely establish parentage and facilitate the illegal transfer of infants.”
Police said that questioning those arrested, which includes traffickers, agents, suppliers, mediators, transporters and buyers, among others, revealed that the syndicate mostly targeted tribal families living in remote areas of Rajasthan and Gujarat, and sold the babies to childless couples in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. They said that four of the five babies were rescued from three childless couples in Haryana’s Panipat and Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior.
“We are still trying to identify and locate the biological parents of the five rescued infants. Raids are also on to arrest two-three more members of the syndicate who have already been identified,” the first officer said.
