Baby Falak case: Two held, human trafficking suspected

A human trafficking and prostitution aspect was being suspected in battered baby Falak's case as more sordid details emerged on Monday with the arrest of two more people. One of them was a woman who allegedly forced the child's biological mother to re-marry and was responsible for the disappearance of Falak's siblings.

The biological mother of Falak has been identified as Munni Khatoon. Police traced her and brought her to Delhi on Sunday from Jhunjhnu district in Rajasthan. According to police, two of her children are untraceable.

Falak is fighting for life in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Munni told police that she was married off to another man but was not allowed to keep her three children.

Following her disclosure, police on Monday arrested Laxmi, who had taken Rs2.7 lakh from Munni's second husband for the marriage. Laxmi appears to have had a central role in the suspected sale of her two other children - a boy and a girl, police said.

Police also arrested Kanta Choudhary, who is believed to have convinced Munni to leave her first husband, Mohammed Shah Hussain, a criminal, to marry again. Munni is originally from Muzzafarpur in Bihar.

With the latest arrests, police have so far nabbed six people in the case.

As investigators tried to string together the sequence of events in the case, sources told IANS that police are probing a likely human trafficking and prostitution racket in the case.

The story hit headlines after Falak was admitted to AIIMS Trauma Centre Jan 18 by a teenager, who claimed to be her mother. Falak was in a critical condition as her head was smashed and she had human bite marks all over her body.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Chhaya Sharma told reporters that 22-year old Munni will have to undergo DNA test to prove that she is the biological mother of Falak.

Piecing together the events, the police officer said Munni has three children - a five-year-old boy, a three-and-a-half year old daughter and Falak - from her first husband. She got married in 2006 when she was barely 16 years old.

During questioning, Munni told police her son had been bitten by a dog last year and she was taking him to a doctor when she met a person identified as Shankar.

On some pretext Shankar took her phone number and started calling her. He also got to know that her husband has a criminal background and tried to convince her to leave him and to re-marry.

Munni after a while decided to leave her husband, but she distrusted Shankar.

Shankar then made her speak to Laxmi, who lives in Uttam Nagar in west Delhi.

Laxmi managed to convince Munni to re-marry. She told her that she also hails from Muzaffarpur and told Munni to visit her family to reassure herself. Munni met her family and was convinced. Laxmi also told her that she could take her three children along.

Munni came to Delhi with her kids in tow in August, the police official said.

"In Delhi, she stayed with Laxmi, who got her a job as a domestic help," Sharma said.

The story did not end here.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police Chhaya Sharma, Laxmi then contacted Saroj, who had helped in fixing one of her relative's marriage. Saroj contacted another woman, Choudhary.

Choudhary, who is from Rajasthan, got Munni married to a 25-year-old man, whose name is yet to be revealed.

Sharma said the man paid money to Laxmi for the marriage. It is unclear whether money was distributed among others.

The marriage took place on September 1 last year.

Munni was forced to leave her children with Laxmi, Sharma said.

Falak is battling for life at AIIMS while the fate of her siblings is not known.

Police had earlier said that Laxmi through some one had got in touch with Rajkumar alias Dilshad, a taxi driver, to adopt Falak. Rajkumar, who was already married and has kids, left the two-year-old child with a teenager, whom he sexually exploited. He is on the run.

The teenager allegedly beat the child and later admitted Falak to the hospital.