Indian Wife sells Son aged 3 so she could Remarry

An Indian wife has been arrested after she sold her three-year-old son so that she could remarry.

The shocking incident happened in the city of Rajkot, Gujarat.

The matter came to light a year after the woman left her husband with their child.

Ajay Dharjia got married to a woman named Jayashree in 2017. The marriage was arranged after he paid Rs. 2.40 Lakh (£2,400) to the woman’s mother Ramben Vyas.

The couple soon became parents to a son. However, one day, Jayashree left the family home with her son when he was two-years-old.

Ajay subsequently filed a missing persons’ complaint with the police.

In 2020, after hearing no update about his wife and son, Ajay approached the Gujarat High Court and asked for the police to look for his family.

Officers were directed to search for the missing mother and son.

During the investigation, police found out that the Indian wife was planning to get remarried to a man from Rajkot. When they received this information, police located her whereabouts and arrested her.

Police also discovered that Jayashree had sold her son to a couple in Mumbai because “he was an obstacle” in her plans to get married for a second time.

When questioned by police, Jayashree also confessed that she had sold the child for Rs. 40,000 (£400) to a childless couple in Mumbai.

The man who was set to marry the accused was unaware that she was already married and had a child.

It was revealed that the second marriage was also an arranged one like her first marriage. Similar to the marriage to Ajay, the bride’s family had demanded money from the groom.

An official said that Jayashree, along with her mother and brother, had been taken into custody for questioning.

Based on the information given by Jayashree, the police began a search for the child.

Officers travelled to Mumbai in an attempt to track down the couple, however, they found out that the couple had moved to Tamil Nadu with the child.

Upon learning that the couple were now living in Coimbatore, police located the couple and recovered the child.

The selling of babies and young children is not uncommon in India.

In one case, a couple from Chandigarh were arrested for kidnapping a five-year-old girl in order to sell her for Rs. 1 Lakh (£1,000).

A local saw the woman taking away the girl. As he followed them, the woman’s husband arrived on a scooter, however, they were stopped.

During interrogation, the couple told officers that they had met with a person at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research who said that they would pay Rs. 1 Lakh for a child.

The couple reportedly accepted the offer and came up with a plan to kidnap a child.