In a significant breakthrough, the Belagavi Child Protection Committee and police have dismantled an inter-state child trafficking racket and rescued a one-year-ten-month-old girl who had been sold for ₹4.5 lakh. The rescued child is now under the care of a children’s home in Belagavi.
The primary accused, Rajendra Metri and his wife Shilpa Metri from Sangli, Maharashtra, sold their daughter to Smitha Wadikar from Goa, facilitated by middlemen operating in Belagavi and Maharashtra. The racket was exposed after the Child Protection Committee received a tip-off.
The deal was finalized at a hotel in Joida, Uttara Kannada district, involving Vandana Surave, a Belagavi resident, and Maharashtra-based couple Ravi and Rani Raut, who are believed to be the ringleaders.
Police have filed a case at the Market police station and initiated further investigations. While the child’s parents have been named as the main culprits, Smitha Wadikar has been listed as the third accused.