Tumakuru police busted a child trafficking racket and rescued 6 kids and 7 people including two women were arrested. Recently, in a probe of a kidnap case of an 11-month-old boy the Tumakuru police got the lead of this racket. The arrested accused are 39-year-old Mahesh UD, a manager with a nursing college in Tumakuru; pharmacist at a primary health centre Mehboob Sharif (52); tattoo artists KN Ramakrishnappa (53) and K.Hanumantaraju (45); 44-year-old auto driver Mubarak Pasha from Mandya (who bought the kidnapped boy); staffer of a primary health centre Poornima (39); U.Saujanya (48) a nurse with a private hospital in Sira.
Mahesh, the chief of this network worked as a nurse in Kunigal Government Hospital for over a decade before becoming manager in a private nursing college. People from nearby villages approached Mahesh for the termination of girl children. In cases where termination was not possible, Mahesh would convince them to deliver the baby and hand it over to him. Later, he arranged childless couples for these babies. These deliveries would take place at the private hospital run by accused Mehaboob Sharif. A fake birth certificate, mentioning the childless couple as the child's biological parents, would get readied by Sharif.
Mahesh confessed to the police that he sold this 11-month-old baby (who was later found by the police) and eight other children including six girls and two boys to the childless couples for Rs. 2-4 lakh over a span of two years. This has been happening since 2022. The investigation police officer said, “We visited the couples in Hassan, Belur Cross, Bengaluru, and some remote places in Tumkuru and rescued the children aged between one and two years. Now these children are in the child welfare department’s custody.” The police said, “We will take legal action against these childless couples who illegally purchased the kids.” Of these nine children one boy died of health issues while two (a boy and a girl) were returned to their biological mother. These babies were mostly born out of extramarital affairs or pre-marital affairs and hence, their biological parents didn't want to keep the babies.
Recent Kidnap of a Boy on June 10th: The boy asleep beside his parents was picked up by two men in a Maruti car from the temple premises in Gubbi on the night of June 10th. A special police team was formed to find the boy. After scanning the CCTV footage, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Sira, BK Shekar, and his team traced Ramakrishnappa and Hanumantaraju to their Tumakuru residence. The two said that they were given Rs. 30k each by Mehaboob Sharif to steal the child. Sharif took the police to Mahesh.