In a shocking event, four people, including the owner of a nursing home, were arrested over the past month as Delhi Police unfolded a case where they sold a baby boy to another woman at a hospital in southeast Delhi’s Abul Fazal Enclave, police said on Monday.
Among the arrested are two “agents” who were allegedly involved in arranging patients for an illegal hospital in south Delhi’s Greater Kailash in November 2023, where several patients allegedly died of medical negligence after surgeries were performed by unqualified persons acting as doctors.
Reportedly, the four arrested people were identified as 40-year-old Tabassum Khan, the co-owner of the nursing home where the infant was taken from the two “agents,” Anjali Sharma (28) and Beghraj Singh (28). The woman who was “buying” the infant boy is identified as 40-year old Rehanna, said the deputy commissioner of police.
The incident took place on the nights of June 2 and June 3 at the Medi Care Hospital in Abul Fazal Enclave, when a 32-year-old woman identified as Sushma Gautam, a resident of southeast Delhi and the wife of 33-year-old labourer Vivek Kumar, gave birth to twins (a girl and a boy). Reportedly, the staff at the hospital swapped the newborn boy for a girl child that had been “abandoned” at the nursing home two weeks ago.
Reportedly, the father of the child was shown the babies a few minutes after their birth, but the staff at the nursing home intentionally did not tell the father about their genders.
The babies were kept alongside another 15-day-old girl who was born to an unmarried woman, and the woman had abandoned the child. The staff never reported this to the authorities. “The woman who gave birth to this girl was not married and found out about her pregnancy in the eighth month. She was due to get married in two weeks, so she abandoned the child at the hospital. The hospital did not inform police about this,” said a second investigator privy to the case.
Later, Sushma and Vivek were handed two infant girls—one was their own and the other was the abandoned girl, the officer above cited said. Kumar reported to the hospital that the other was not their girl. “He told the staff that one of the girls was not theirs because, as he saw the kids right after birth, they were healthy, and the one of the two handed over to them later appeared to be weaker. He was anyway not informed about the gender, so he didn’t know his wife had given birth to a girl and a boy,” the officer said.
The hospital ignored the complaint of Kumar, thereby lodged an FIR in the Shaheen Bagh Police station in the wee hours of June 3. After that, a team was constituted, and a probe was conducted.
During the investigation, police found that the documents stated that Sushma had given birth to mixed-gender twins, a girl and a boy, instead of two girls. The police then asked the staff of the hospital, who revealed the involvement of Anjali Sharma. On further investigation, Beghraj and Rehanna’s roles were revealed.
“Anjali knew Beghraj, another such agent, who had connections in Medi Care Hospital. When the baby boy was born to Gautam, the plan was to sell the boy to Rehanna,” the second officer said.
On June 4, police then arrested Tabassum Khan for her alleged role in the conspiracy and Anjali Sharma. Beghraj was then arrested on Sunday (June 7). They were taken on police remand for five days each and then sent to judicial custody, where they continue to remain.
“We are probing if the persons involved in the case run a syndicate selling babies and what the scale of their operation is,” said the first officer.
Khan’s husband, Mohammed Arif, the co-owner of Medi Care Hospital, claimed that his wife was innocent and that she was not aware of the deal made by the hospital staff.
“My wife wasn’t present when the babies were replaced. Our staffers were involved in the racket. Anjali, Beghraj, and many others are agents who refer patients to us. Earlier, they were referring patients to Agarwal Medical Centre in Greater Kailash, but after it shut down, they started referring to us. We were unaware they could be a part of the racket selling babies,” he said.
Earlier, in November, Delhi Police arrested Dr. Neeraj Agarwal, his wife Pooja, and four more persons related to the suspect. At least 17 people have died there due to medical negligence since 2011. Reportedly, Dr. Agarwal, who was not qualified to perform surgeries, had performed operations. His wife, Pooja, who was neither a doctor nor had any medical qualifications, also performed surgeries.
