Chandni Choudhury with the newborn in her lap. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, July 17: Police today rescued the third child of Shyamachandra Rao and Padma Rao, who have hit the headlines for selling their 22-day-old male baby for Rs 6,000 here.

The police today rescued their two-year-old son from Pipili from one Prakash Panda. It is alleged that when the child was handed over to Panda, the baby was only seven months old. The police are trying to verify whether the couple had handed over the child on monetary considerations. Yesterday, the cops swung into action and recovered their nine-year-old daughter from the city. Efforts are on to trace their other child, who is believed to be in Andhra Pradesh.

In another development, Ranjit Choudhury, the buyer of the 22-day-old child, confessed that he had taken the child in exchange of money. “Choudhury told that he executed a sale deed as a precaution after he had received the baby,” said a police official.

Choudhury, a native of Bihar and lives by selling gupchup in Jagatsinghpur, had earlier denied the charges of buying the baby and had asserted that the Rao had handed over the boy to him in view of poverty. The police have sent the 22-day-old baby as well as the two-year-old boy to Child Line after medical test.

Based on the statement of their 13-year-old son, who went missing from Berhampur in April but was rescued from Vishakhapatnam and handed over to Child Line on July 12, the committee also alleged that the couple had earlier sold their two elder sons. The boy said his parents had been selling her siblings.

Khurda district collector Niranjan Sahu today visited Rao’s house in a slum near Press Colony to ascertain the circumstances under which the couple was forced to sell their children.

Kharavela Nagar police detained the Rao couple yesterday following a complaint from the Khurda Child Welfare Committee. The cops have also rescued a nine-year-old daughter of the couple, who was in the custody of an old woman in the same neighbourhood.

Shyamachandra, who is a native of Gola Sahi in Berhampur, is a daily wager and has been without a job for a year now. He has denied charges of having sold his two other sons. The police, however, are yet to register a formal case against the couple.

In the Assembly, Congress members demanded a statement from chief minister Naveen Patnaik. “Earlier, child sales were reported from Kalahandi, causing national uproar. Now, it has happened in Bhubaneswar. If it’s true, it’s shame to the government,” said leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra. Pressing the demand for chief minister’s statement, the Congress members disrupted the proceedings, forcing an adjournment.

Minister Damodar Rout said the government could not do anything if a couple gave birth to children one after another, in violation of the family planning norms.