Burdwan, Sept. 8: The government has ordered a probe into allegations that an employee of a nursing home here handed over a forsaken infant to a couple in exchange for Rs 1,000.

?This kind of transaction does not have any legal sanction. A nursing home cannot hand over a newborn baby to other persons and should have informed the local police station after the baby was deserted by her mother. The authorities should have given away the baby only after receiving a court order,? said director of health services Prabhakar Chatterjee.

Swapan Sen, the manager of Annapurna Nursing Home, said a woman gave birth to a baby girl on September 5 but declined to take her home. She requested the nursing home authorities to look after her baby.

?One of our employees, Chapala Roy, later contacted a couple and handed over the child to them against Rs 1,000 without consulting us,? Sen said. Asked why he has not initiated action against her, he said: ?We will think about it after the owner of the nursing home returns.?

Roy admitted she gave away the baby, but denied she took money. ?The child?s mother asked me to make some alternative arrangements as she was unable to look after her. A housewife of our locality, Bandana Pal, wanted to adopt a girlchild for a long time. So I decided to hand over the baby to her. Now I realise that I committed a mistake,? she said.

Bandana and her husband Samir said they had two sons and wanted a daughter. So they paid Roy Rs 1,000 for the girl.