Indian police find battered toddler's mother, trafficking racket

Feb 7, 2012, 11:24 GMT

New Delhi - The mother of a battered 2-year-old girl fighting for her life in a hospital was forced to abandon her children in the hope they would get a better life, Indian police said Tuesday.

The mother called Munni who is in her 20s would get custody of the child who was admitted to hospital on January 27 with broken limbs and serious head wounds, New Delhi deputy commissioner of police Chhaya Sharma said.

The search for the mother over the past 12 days unearthed a trail involving several people allegedly involved in a human trafficking ring. At least four people have been arrested so far.

Doctors at the All India Institute for Medical Sciences said the child was still in critical condition and would possibly suffer from permanent brain damage even if she survived.

The child was brought to the hospital by a 15-year-old girl, who is believed to have been responsible for the injuries, police said.

The teenager, who was given the child by a male friend who then abandoned them both, is being treated as a victim of abuse and counselled, police said.

Officials were searching for a middle-aged couple who persuaded the mother give them her three children on the understanding that she could collect them later once she had a new husband.

'Munni was a school dropout who was abandoned by her husband and was in a vulnerable position with no one to look after her and her children,' Sharma said.

No criminal case would be registered against her.

Another daughter had been traced while the police were still looking for the son, Sharma said.

The police official said the couple received at least 300,000 rupees (about 6,127 dollars) from a man in the northern state of Rajasthan for providing Munni as a bride.

Rajasthan is among the states where men greatly outnumber women largely due to abortions of female foetuses, often creating a shortage of prospective brides in villages.