Chennai Police on Wednesday arrested six individuals, including the biological parents of a three-month-old girl, for selling the infant for ₹2.2 lakh to a childless couple from Tiruvannamalai after a neighbourhood quarrel over delayed payment exposed the illicit transaction. The arrests—carried out under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for child trafficking—ended a covert deal that had remained hidden in Kannagi Nagar’s resettlement colony until angry voices spilt onto the street last week.

The infant’s father, S. Sriju, 27, an unemployed daily-wage labourer, and mother, S. Vinisha, 23, a housekeeping staffer earning ₹12,000 monthly, already parents to two daughters aged five and three, had reportedly decided even before the third child’s birth in May that another girl would be “unaffordable.” With Vinisha’s friend Sivaranjani acting as the first link, the chain extended through her mother-in-law, Sagayamari, to Padi-based flower vendor P. Sumathi, who connected the sellers to buyers Shanthini and Niyamuthulla—a couple married 15 years without children. Niyamuthulla, an electrician posted in Chennai, paid ₹2 lakh upfront and promised the balance after registration formalities that never materialised.

The deal unravelled when Sumathi began pressing for her ₹20,000 commission and the final ₹20,000 from the buyers. Overheard arguments in the narrow lanes of Kannagi Nagar’s F-Block prompted residents to alert the local beat police, who recovered the baby from the buyers’ rented home in Thiruvanmiyur within hours. A medical examination confirmed the infant was healthy but underweight; she has been placed in the care of the Child Welfare Committee while DNA samples establish parentage for future rehabilitation.

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All six accused—Sriju, Vinisha, grandmother Sarala, Sivaranjani, Sagayamari, and Sumathi—were produced before the Saidapet magistrate and remanded to Puzhal Central Prison for 15 days. Police have seized mobile phones containing WhatsApp chats negotiating the price (“2.2 final, no bargaining, girl is fair”) and bank transfers totalling ₹1.95 lakh. The case has exposed a thriving underground baby-trade network operating through word-of-mouth in Chennai’s resettlement colonies, where female infants remain especially vulnerable amid poverty and son-preference mindsets, prompting the city police to announce intensified patrols and awareness drives ahead of the festive season.

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