A hospital is persuading women who want to terminate their pregnancies to have the babies so it can sell them for $1,400 each to childless couples.

The shocking “baby farm” has been exposed at the 30-bed Palash Hospital in the Gwailor district of India. Two of the sold babies have since been rescued by police.

Prateek Kumar, from the ASP crime branch, told Times of India: “Three others have been sold to childless couples in Uttar Pradesh and Chattisgarh.”

Hospital manager Arun Bhadoria was arrested and claimed that agents in the Chambal region fetched girls with unwanted pregnancies. An investigation was launched when he could not give the whereabouts of two babies born in the hospital.

In total, five people have been charged with slavery crimes.

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An investigating officer told the Times of India: “When a girl or her parents approached them for a termination of pregnancies, doctors at this hospital used to convince them, assuring a safe and secret delivery.

“Once the baby is delivered and the mother gets discharged, hospital authorities start hunting for gullible couples who could buy them.”

The hospital was raided on Saturday night following a tip about trafficked infants.

Police are now searching for couples who bought babies from the hospital and for those who were sold.