Driven by extreme poverty and lack of work a pavement dweller indulging in begging and taking up petty jobs tried to sold off his baby for a sum of Rs. 70,000 in Hyderabad.
According to reports, a couple who were observing the poor family living on a footpath for some days and had approached the man, offering Rs 70,000 for the infant.
The father of the baby identified as Raju with the help of a middleman sold the child to one Afreen, a resident of NTR Nagar in LB Nagar for Rs 70,000.
On coming to know of this, Sara the mother of the child approached the Chaderghat police and lodged a complaint against her husband.
The police then tracked the people who took the child to NTR Nagar in LB Nagar with the help of CCTV cameras rescued the child from Afreen and handed him over to Sara at the police station.
S Sampath, Sub-inspector (Chaderghat) said Afreen and his wife did not have a child even 10 years after marriage and had bought the child from Raju.
The baby was located on Thursday following investigations based on CCTV footage.
In the meanwhile, a case under the provisions of Juvenile Justice Act has been registered and the baby handed over to the government''s child welfare department, police said, adding further investigation was on.
Earlier in Assam, driven by extreme poverty and lack of work during the Covid- a migrant labourer in Assam sold his 15-day-old daughter for Rs 45,000, however, police rescued the baby.
In the year 2020, lakhs of labourers returned to their homes in Assam from large cities outside the state after they became jobless during the lockdown.
Though the state government had announced that it will create job opportunities for them through various initiatives,including under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the COVID-19 outbreak has badly hit-most economic activities in the state.