Poor woman in Bihar sells child for Rs 62

Patna, 15 Jul 2012 (IANS): Police have began an inquiry into a poverty-stricken woman in Bihar’s Araria district selling her four-month-old son for just Rs 62 to a Nepalese couple, sources Sunday said.

 

"I was informed that a poor woman sold her child to a Nepalese couple. Police have now begun investigation into it," Araria police chief Shivdeep W. Lande told IANS on the telephone.

 

Shannu Khatun, in her mid-30s, who is struggling for survival, sold her son to a Nepalese couple at Forbesganj railway station, near the Indo-Nepal border in Araria, about 350 km from here, Saturday.

 

Khatun, along with her children, had left her village a few days ago and taken shelter at the Forbesganj railway station. She refuted that she had sold her child but admitted to giving away her child for his own sake.

 

But her eight-year-old elder daughter Sabina told some local residents that her mother sold her younger brother for a mere Nepalese Rs 100 (Indian Rs 62).

 

Syed Ahsan Ali, of the Railway Protection Force said Khatun had donated her child to a Nepalese couple. "She told us that she had not received any money for it."