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Quarrel over price of sold baby leads to arrests
View(s):By Hansani Bandara
The Central Province Department of Probation and Childcare is conducting an inquiry to decide whether an infant sold in Pussellawa for Rs. 35,000 should be returned to its parents. The baby had been sold to a couple in Negombo. The parents — Rajasingham Wasanthi, 26, and Ramalingam Subramaniam, 28 — are under arrest. Also arrested were the buyers, 53-year-old Saroja Devi and her husband, Velupillai Samipillai.
Nobody’s baby: At the police station oblivious to all that has happened. Pix by Suranga Rajanayake
They were remanded till April 5 by Gampola Magistrate Wasantha Kumara along with two people who had brokered the deal, Ms. Wasanthi’s brother, Sandanam, and another man, Arul Mauli. The parents and brokers are from Labukelle in Nuwara Eliya while the buyers were employed as caretakers of a house in Negombo.
The baby was born at Wahugapitiya Hospital in Pussellawa on March 15 and sold three days later. Pussellawa police caught the suspects on a tip-off from a three-wheeler driver.Ms. Wasanthi and Mr. Subramaniam had been returning to Labukelle in his vehicle after having sold the baby, and had begun quarrelling over the price they had received for the infant.
The vehicle driver learned about the deal as the argument unfolded and had afterwards contacted the Pussellawa police with the information. The police obtained more details about the parents including Ms. Wasanthi’s hospital ticket, said Pussellawa District Medical Officer, Dr. R. Ramachandra. The parents and brokers were arrested first, at Labukelle. The police then contacted Saroja Devi through Sandanam, who persuaded her to come to Pussellawa with the child. They, too, were arrested. All of them were produced in court on Tuesday.
The operation was carried out under the advice of SP Gamini Perera. A departmental Placement Committee is to decide on the baby’s custodianship, the Provincial Commissioner of Probation and Childcare, Kumudinie Premachandra, said. The infant is now in the care of a receiving home affiliated with the department.
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