Vikhroli

Rakhi Babre

Thane Police

Thane Crime Branch

Aviraj Kurade

Provided kids to childless couples and homes to unwanted kids, saysresident, arrested for child trafficking and surrogacy racketA fortnight after Vikhroli resident Rakhi Babre was arrested along with eight others for running a child trafficking and surrogacy racket that the police believe is spread beyond the state boundaries, the cops are surprised by her self-righteousness. In her police statement, Babre, 38, said she had “merely found a way” to help couples who were unable to conceive, and in the process, “secured homes for unwanted children” who would have otherwise been pushed into the world of crime.Thelast month busted a racket wherein poor women were roped in to become surrogate mothers for a price. The group, headed by Babre, had also sold 18 unwanted children in the past two years, all less than six months of age, for Rs 5 lakh each. Investigation revealed one of the women was made to donate eggs on 13 occasions.Babre and eight of her aides were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 361 (kidnapping from lawful guardianship), 365 (kidnapping with intent to secretly and wrongfully confine a person), 368 (wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement a kidnapped person) and 372 (selling minor for purposes of prostitution), and relevant provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.Investigation revealed Babre charged around Rs 2 lakh to provide surrogate mother, and many of the kids were also sold to the begging mafia.Babre told the police that she herself had been a surrogate mother three years ago, and was paid Rs 3 lakh for a delivery.Insisting that she merely “found a way around the cumbersome adoption laws in the country”, she said, “There are countless women yearning for a child, and equal number of women willing to donate eggs. There are also women who are victims of unwanted pregnancies. We found such people and told them we can help.” Babre and her agents started doing the rounds of IVF clinics.“We knew the staff at several IVF centres in the city, who would give us details about women not able to conceive despite undergoing multiple IVF cycles. These women would do anything to get pregnant,” she said in her statement.Similarly, her ‘agents’ had befriended staffers at several orphanages, who would ‘recommend’ her to couples looking to adopt.Repeatedly terming what she did as “samaj seva”, Babre said in her statement that she prevented several abortions.“I had a team of counsellors,” she boasted in her statement.“We would convince women, many of whom were victims of rape, to not abort the child as abortion is the greatest sin. Most of these women were happy to hand over the child to us for money,” she told the police. One of the nine arrested last month is a 35-year-old woman, who was brought to Mumbai by Babre.The woman had arrived in the city to sell her six-month-old, who was born after she was raped by her step son, and Babre had fixed up a customer.Babre told the police she was emboldened by the fact that she managed to sell as many as 18 children, a majority of them in Mumbai, without getting caught even once.She also took advantage of “unclear surrogacy rules” in India.“For married couples, there’s no greater desire than becoming parents. This desire helped us,” she told the police. The Thane Police say Babre’s arrest could expose IVF centres and orphanages hand-in-glove with such rackets.Senior Inspector Nitin Thakre fromtold Mumbai Mirror, “There are couples looking to adopt and not willing to go through the procedure. That’s where Babre came into picture and promised to hand over a baby within a week. The accused would charge Rs 5 lakh per baby, and Rs 2 lakh to provide a surrogate mother.”Inspectorfrom Thane Police added that more people were likely to be arrested in the racket.“We are still compiling a list of couples that were provided with a surrogate mother or sold a baby,” Kurade said.