A day after the infant theft case created ripples in the city, police on Friday suspected the family of the single mother of trying to get rid of the baby in lieu of money.

Sources in the police said Kamal Ram, the father of single mother, lodged an FIR at Kankerbagh police station on Thursday perhaps after a deal to sell the infant went awry.

An officer told The Telegraph: “The woman delivered the infant around 9.30pm on May 21. But Ram decided to lodge the FIR only on May 23. Why did he wait for two days?”

The police suspect the woman being a single mother, her family members, including her father and an uncle, decided to get rid of the infant owing to social stigma. But they did not want to dump the baby boy. They wanted to sell him to a rich person in lieu of money.

The officer said: “The father of the single mother had contacted some people in Patna for her delivery. They told him that the nursing home at Kankerbagh, from where the baby was stolen, was a safe place. Then the father perhaps decided to sell the baby to a wealthy family of the city, from whose home the baby was recovered.”

Ram had said on Thursday: “We are very poor people and I am a rickshaw-puller. Some of my associates in Patna told me that this nursing home was good. I came to Patna with my daughter on May 19 and admitted her to the nursing home.”

Another officer said: “The businessman wanted an infant for a childless relative of his. The police suspect the family of the woman demanded a huge sum from the businessman in lieu of the baby. The businessman might have agreed initially, but backed off later. When deal went awry, Ram decided to lodge an FIR.”

The police on Friday said six people were named in the FIR lodged by Ram. One of them was arrested on Thursday. He has been forwarded to jail.

The remaining five accused are absconding, the police added. None of the police officers, however, spoke about the amount of money involved in the alleged baby sale deal.

Another officer also suspected the involvement of the nursing home in the deal, as it could not produce the body of the infant when the police asked for the same.

Ram, a resident of Kobil village in Nalanda, had alleged that the nursing home employees informed him that his daughter had delivered a stillborn on May 21. When Ram spoke to his daughter the next day, he got the shock of his life.

“My daughter told me that she was in her senses when the baby boy was being delivered and that she had seen him alive and crying. I asked the hospital staff about it but the doctors and nurses didn’t believe me. I got restless and a patient told me to go to the police station and lodge a complaint,” Ram said.

The police acted immediately after Ram lodged a complaint.

“During our investigation, we found that the nursing home couldn’t produce the body of the infant. Finally, a nurse who was present during the delivery admitted that the baby was alive. The nurse led the police to the house of the businessman and the infant was recovered,” traffic superintendent of police (SP) Chandrika Prasad, who is holding the additional post of Patna City SP, had said.

A senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, said the nursing home compounder took away the baby on the night of May 21 and passed it on to the canteen manager of the private hospital.

“The next morning, the canteen manager handed over the infant to the businessman’s family in Patna City,” the officer said.