Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Cuttack, Jun 16:

Police and members of a voluntary organisation on Sunday rescued one of the three children allegedly sold off by their mother to a family in Odisha’s Choudwar. Two other children of the woman, however, remain untraced.

child sale

Unable to meet the ends of the family, the mother of seven from Professor Pada in Cuttack city had allegedly sold off her three children, one among them to a family in Salagaon in Choudwar on the outskirts of the Millennium City.

City-based NGO Child Line had filed a complaint with the Mangalabag police regarding the alleged child sale following which an investigation began into the incident.

Police interrogated Tikina Barik, the mother of the kids, on Sunday. Acting on the information provided by her, police, along with Child Line officials, raided the village and rescued the 13-month-old son sold to the couple. However, the other two kids could not be traced.

During the course of investigation, a team comprising personnel from Badambadi police and the voluntary organisation visited Tikina’s home on Monday and enquired about the other children.

During interrogation, the woman had provided the police the address and the mobile number  of the person she had sold her child to. While the Mahatab Road address was found to be incorrect, the mobile number was tracked to a person in Pithapur area in the city. The police reached Pithapur area and found that the man had gone to his father-in-law’s place in Bihar.

"We can proceed further only after the man returns from Bihar," a police official said.

On the other hand, Tikina refuted the allegations of child sale. She said that she had handed over her children to others for better upbringing as she could not feed them. She said she had not sold off her children; rather she had handed them over as per an agreement with them.

However, she could not furnish any papers in support of the agreements. Besides, she claimed that the documents have been destroyed due to heavy rain in the last few days as she lives in a thatched house. The documents would be available with the other persons, she insisted.

Notably, she had handed over one of her children four years ago and another two years ago.