AMARDEEP Bajaj’s world came crashing down at 2 am this morning. Police knocked at the door and bluntly informed that Jaskirat, Bajaj’s one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, was no longer his.
Bajaj and his wife Gita had adopted the child in December 2001 through Dr Ish Aggarwal’s nursing home in Uttam Nagar. The gynaecologist and two touts were arrested yesterday night on charges of running an adoption racket.
Police said Aggarwal, 58, has confessed to running the racket for five years and selling ‘‘lots of babies’’. She would lure poor parents or unmarried women.
Joint Commissioner (Crime) U.K. Katna said: ‘‘Aggarwal never verified the credentials of potential parents. Many may have bought babies with other motives but we have located two childless couples so far.’’
Bajaj and Gita are one such couple. After two miscarriages, Gita was told she could not have her own baby. Bajaj said they tried everywhere but the adoption procedures were tough and cumbersome.
‘‘In Jaipur, the authorities asked us to fill a bond of Rs 10,000. Children were then lined up for us to choose, which put me off. How can you put a child through this?’’ said Bajaj. Aggarwal, he said, offered to get a baby when Gita was being treated in her nursing home.
‘‘We paid Rs 10,000 for the caesarean the mother would go through. Jaskirat was born on December 19 and we adopted her the next day. The identity of her mother was not revealed,’’ said Bajaj.
Police said a woman was sent as a decoy to Aggarwal two months ago. She agreed to sell a baby girl for Rs 30,000 and took one-third of the amount as advance. Since a baby wasn’t available immediately, two touts — 63-year-old Gurmeet Singh and 45-year-old Kuldeep Kaur — stepped in.
A police official said the touts promised a baby girl for double the rate — Rs 60,000. Aggarwal, however, convinced the decoy to wait.
Yesterday, the decoy was asked to get admitted at Aggarwal’s nursing home so that the baby could be handed over and showed in the records as a delivery. Police raided the nursing home soon after. Lakshmi, the baby being sold off, has been returned to her parents.
An official said the two-and-a-half-month-old was born with an abnormality and her parents are poor. ‘‘Aggarwal assured the parents that Lakshmi would be with a well-off family,’’ he said.
The nursing home also conducted medical termination of pregnancies. ‘‘ Whenever it was dangerous to conduct an abortion, she may have convinced the women to deliver the baby and sold them,” an official said.
Katna said the gynaecologist used to provide the foster parents with MCD birth certificates. It will be difficult to find the real parents as there are no records. Aggarwal’s medical degree too is being verified, he said.
Having been told that the adoption was illegal, the Bajaj couple is now helpless. ‘‘We will try to adopt Jaskirat legally, through the courts,’’ said Amardeep, trying to sound brave and holding the child possessively.