Cuttack, Sept. 28: Orissa High Court today directed the state police to recover a two-year-old boy alleged to have been sold off for Rs 5,000 by her mother in Jajpur district.

The two-judge bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice B.K. Mishra directed the police to recover and hand over the child to his mother after registering suo motu a public interest litigation on the case. The court directed for listing of the PIL next week and asked the state counsel to submit a status report by then.

According to reports in the media, Rakhi Patra allegedly sold her two-year-old son to another person on September 21 to meet legal expenses to get her husband released from jail.

Rakhi and her husband Manoj Patra worked as daily wage labourers around Jajpur Road, near the industrial hub at Kalinga Nagar. Her husband was arrested around two months ago on theft charges.

Rakhi’s mother-in-law Kanak Patra had filed an FIR on September 22 at Jajpur Road police station concerning the alleged sale of the child.

Police had begun investigation and sent Rakhi to a shelter for women on Jajpur Road as her in-laws and parents refused to allow her to continue to live in village after she sold her son, reports said.