City doc wanted for selling babies questioned, held

City-based doctor Bharat Atit was arrested by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch Tuesday for alleged human trafficking, police said.

Addressing the media, Joint Commissioner of Police A K Sharma said, "Atit has traded babies in name of surrogacy and so far three such babies have been found out. He traded babies to couples who wanted quicker options to get children."

He had withdrawn his anticipatory bail plea a day before his arrest after the Gujarat High Court had shown inclination towards rejecting it over allegations of illegal adoption and sale of newborn babies. After the withdrawal of the plea on Monday, the police had called him to the crime branch office for questioning, following which he was arrested.

The case had come to the fore when Mona alias Manjula Thakor had filed a complaint of rape against her boyfriend Rajkumar Yadav, son of police constable in Nadiad. During probe it was found that Mona had indulged in surrogacy for Dr. Atit. Her boyfriend had taken some of the money she got from Dr Atit. She wanted to trap her boyfriend by filing a fake complaint of rape but ended up exposing Dr Atit's racket.

According to the case details, Mona's baby and a baby from another surrogate mother were handed over to a doctor couple from Porbandar a few months back as non-identical twin boys. Both Mona and the unidentified mother given Rs Five lakh for their service.

When Atit was interrogated further, he said that even while giving the two babies to the couple in Porbandar, he had exchanged a baby boy as one of the babies was 'wrongly sent to them' and had to be given to someone else. This resulted in trading of three babies. The mother's identity and location of the third baby is yet to be ascertained.

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