2 jailed for life for trafficking newborn babies

The rescued babies. File Photo
The rescued babies. File Photo

A Dhaka court on Tuesday jailed two, including a woman, for life in a case filed in connection with the trafficking of two newborn babies.

The court also fined them Tk 50,000 each for the incident.

Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-3 judge Joyshree Samaddar delivered the verdict.

The two convicts are -- Jharna Begum from Sirajganj and Manik from Narayanganj.

Besides, two accused --Abdul Matin and Shila Begum -- were acquitted.

On 12 January 2006, sub-inspector Enamul Kabir filed a case with Khilgaon police station on charges of stealing and trafficking the two babies.

According to the case statement, Jharna Begum was detained with a baby boy of about 10-day-old from Khilgaon area in the capital on 6 January 2006.

During police interrogation, Jharna admitted the baby was not her. She also said that she had kept another baby girl in Rampura. Police rescued the baby girl from there.

Jharna also said that she had brought the baby boy from Manik Mia in Fatullah of Narayanganj and the baby girl from Abdul Matin, a guard at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Later police detained Manik Mia.

After the investigation, SI Abul Khair submitted a charge sheet to the court against four people including Jharna Begum on 26 March 2006.

According to the charge sheet, real guardians of the two babies could not be found. Out of 15 witnesses, nine gave deposition in the court.

Accused Manik and Jharna also gave confessional statements before the court.

Following the arrest of Jharna, police in a report told the court that Jharna Begum used to steal newborns babies and trafficked to different countries in the Middle East.