Fake job agency in New Delhi ran baby-selling business
INDIA: A woman suspected of running a fake employment agency that
organized the rape of young women and subsequent sale of their babies to
childless couples has been arrested for kidnapping and wrongful
confinement, police said Monday.
Preeti and her husband Vinod, who both go by one name, ran a job
agency in the Indian capital, New Delhi, offering maids to families,
said Rajan Bhagat, a spokesman for the city police.
The couple allegedly lured young women and girls aged under 18 years
through the agency with promises of work, but instead confined them to a
small room where they were raped to make them pregnant, Bhagat told The
Associated Press. Their children were subsequently sold to childless
couples, he said.
Police arrested Preeti on Sunday on charges of rape, kidnapping,
threat to life and wrongful confinement and were hunting for Vinood,
Bhagat said.
The scandal emerged when the CNN-IBN television news channel ran a
story on the agency.
Most of the girls lured to the agency came from poor families in east
Indian states including Bihar and Jharkhand. Womens’ rights groups say
thousands of poverty-striken women and girls are trafficked every year
after being lured from villages to cities on false promises of jobs or
marriages.
New Delhi, Tuesday, AP.
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