Bhubaneswar, July 18: A police team today raided several places in Cuttack to rescue the five-year-old girl child of Shyamachandra Rao and Pramila Rao, whom Kharavela Nagar police detained on Wednesday for selling their 22-day-old son and two other children.
However, the police failed to trace the girl.
Earlier, Shyamachandra told the police that he had handed over the girl to Gitanjali Parida of Kakatpur in Puri district a week after she was born. The police, during its investigation, found that the girl had been staying in Andhra Pradesh, but later, the cops came to know that the girl was staying with the Parida couple in Cuttack.
In another development, the police have registered a case against the Rao couple and two other couples under the Juvenile Justice Act. On Wednesday, the police had rescued the 22-day-old baby boy from the possession of Ranjit Choudhury and Chandni Choudhury from Jagatsinghpur.
Similarly, another two-year-old male child born to the Rao couple was rescued from the possession of Prakash Panda and Swarnaprabha Panda from Pipili in Puri district yesterday.
“A case under Section 23 of the Juvenile Justice Act (punishment for cruelty to juvenile or child — imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or fine or both) has been registered. Efforts are on to trace the four-year-old girl,” said assistant commissioner of police Pramod Kumar Rath.
Rath said a police team would visit Andhra Pradesh if required.
Though Shayamachandra admitted to have sold his 22-day-old son to the Choudhury couple for Rs 6,000, he denied selling his two other children, including the girl.
The matter came to light after a 13-year-old boy, born to the couple, went missing and was later found from Vishakhapatnam. He was sent to Berhampur Child Line and subsequently handed over to the non-government organisation’s Bhubaneswar branch on July 12. When officials of Bhubaneswar Child Line counselled the boy, he told that his parents had sold two of their children. Later, members of the child welfare committee visited the house of the couple at Press Colony in the Kharavela Nagar police limits and found an agreement, which showed that the couple had sold their 22-day-old son to the Choudhurys for Rs 6,000. Thereafter, the committee, based on the deed made on a stamp paper and statement of Rao’s 13-year-old son, lodged an FIR with the police.