Hospital tried to sell infant boy after swapping with girl; 4 held

Four people, including the owner of a nursing home, were arrested over the past month as Delhi Police uncovered a case where they sold a baby boy to another woman at a hospital in southeast Delhi’s Abul Fazal Enclave, police officials said on Monday.

Among those arrested are two “agents” who were allegedly involved in arranging patients for an illegal hospital busted by police in south Delhi’s Greater Kailash in November 2023 where dozens of patients allegedly died of medical negligence after surgeries were performed by unqualified personnel, said investigators part of the probe, who did not wish to be identified.

The four arrested people were identified as 40-year-old Tabassum Khan, the co-owner of the nursing home where the infant was taken from, the two “agents” – 28-year-old Anjali Sharma, and 28-year-old Beghraj Singh – and the woman who was “buying” the infant boy 40-year-old Rehanna (who police say goes by a single name), said deputy commissioner of police (south east) Rajesh Deo.

The incident took place on the intervening night of June 2 and June 3 at the Medi Care Hospital in Abul Fazal Enclave, when a 32-year-old woman identified by police as Sushma Gautam – a resident of southeast Delhi and the wife of 33-year-old labourer Vivek Kumar – gave birth to mixed-gender twins. Investigators aware of the probe said the staff reportedly swapped the newborn boy for a girl child that had been “abandoned” at the nursing home two weeks prior.

The father of the child was shown the babies minutes after their birth, but the staff at the nursing home deliberately did not tell him about their genders, the officer cited above said.

The twins were then kept in the nursery alongside another 15-day old girl who was born to an unmarried woman who had later abandoned the child – something that the staff never reported to authorities. “The woman who gave birth to this girl was not married, and found out about her pregnancy in the eighth month. She was due to get married in two weeks, so she abandoned the child at the hospital. The hospital did not inform police about this,” said a second investigator privy to the case.

Sushma and Vivek were, a few hours later, handed two infant girls – one of which was their own, and the other was the abandoned girl, the officer cited above said. Kumar informed the staff at the hospital that the second girl was not his. “He told the staff that one of the girls was not theirs because as he saw the kids right after birth, they were healthy and the one of the two handed over to them later appeared to be weaker. He was anyway not informed about the gender, so he didn’t know his wife had given birth to a girl and a boy,” the officer said.

When the staff at the nursing home ignored his please, he approached police at Shaheen Bagh station in the early hours of June 3.

A team was constituted, and investigation was launched.

During investigation, police found that documents stated that Gautam had given birth to a boy and a girl, instead of two girls. They then questioned the staff of the hospital who revealed involvement of Anjali Sharma. During interrogation, roles of Beghraj and Rehanna were revealed.

During their investigation, police officials said they found that Rehanna, a resident of Aligarh, had met Anjali Singh a few weeks ago and told the latter that she had two daughters and wanted a boy. Anjali, who worked as an uncertified agent who referred patients to various small hospitals in south and southeast Delhi told her that she would “arrange” a baby boy for her.

“Anjali knew Beghraj, another such agent, who had connections in Medi Care Hospital. When the baby boy was born to Gautam, the plan was to sell the boy to Rehanna,” the second officer said.

The officer said that the price was not yet decided between the parties, but that it would be running into several lakh rupees.

On June 4, police then arrested Tabassum Khan for her alleged role in the conspiracy and Anjali Sharma. Beghraj was then arrested on Sunday (June 7). They were taken on police remand for five days each and then sent to judicial custody where they continue to remain.

“We are probing if the persons involved in the case run a syndicate of selling babies and what is the scale of their operation,” said the first officer.

Khan’s husband, Mohammed Arif, a Bachelor of Unani Medicine & Surgery (BUMS) degree holder and the co-owner of Medi Care Hospital which has been running in Abul Fazal Enclave for over a decade, however, insisted that his wife was innocent and that she was not aware of the deal struck by the hospital staff.

“My wife wasn’t present when the babies were replaced. Our staffers were involved in the racket. Anjali, Beghraj and many others are agents who refer patients to us. Earlier, they were referring patients to Agarwal Medical Centre in Greater Kailash but after it shut down, they started referring to us. We were unaware they could be a part of the racket selling babies,” he said.

In November, Delhi Police arrested Dr Neeraj Agarwal, his wife Pooja, and four more persons related to the centre, and suspected that at least 17 people died there due to medical negligence since 2011. Dr Agarwal, who was not qualified to perform surgeries, had reportedly performed operations. His wife Pooja, who was not a doctor nor had any medical qualifications, also performed surgeries.

Investigators said they are looking for links that Anjali and Beghraj had to the GK hospital.