A businessman and his wife from Guna have been arrested for allegedly abandoning their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter on a highway in Bhopal, with police uncovering links to a suspected child trafficking network.
The child was found alone on National Highway-552 in Sheopur district on April 18 after a Dial-112 alert. Police reached the spot and handed the toddler over to the local Child Welfare Committee (CWC), which took her into care following medical examination.
During the investigation, police traced the vehicle used to abandon the child through CCTV footage and technical evidence, leading them to the accused couple. Initially, they claimed the child had been legally adopted, but later admitted under questioning that she had been “purchased” for around ₹1 lakh through an illegal network operating out of Indore.
Authorities have since invoked charges under the Juvenile Justice Act, along with provisions related to trafficking and child abandonment under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The couple has been remanded to police custody.
Officials said the case has expanded into a larger probe into a trafficking racket that allegedly sources children from vulnerable backgrounds and sells them under the guise of adoption. Several suspects linked to the network have already been arrested.
Police are now working to trace the child’s biological parents and determine the full extent of the operation.
Adding to the allegations, a woman from Bhopal who claimed to be the child’s former caretaker told investigators that the toddler was subjected to physical abuse. She said she had been hired for ₹20,000 a month but left the job after not being paid, and alleged that the couple never disclosed the child’s origin.
