KOLKATA: Police on Friday busted a child-theft syndicate and arrested five persons in North 24 Parganas’ Ashokenagar . The accused include the owner of a nursing home, a quack, the nursing home’s caretaker, a rickshaw puller and a tea-vendor. They were remanded in cop custody for five days.The racket came to light on Friday evening when Goutam Chandra and his wife Dipa took their child to Habra State General Hospital for treatment. Hospital superintendent Shankar Lal Ghosh said, “When the couple could not produce documents of the child, we suspected something amiss. They admitted they had bought the baby. We then informed Habra police station.”The Chandras, who had been childless, had first contacted rickshaw-puller Biswanath Banik who took them to tea vendor Sipra Bapari. Sipra took the couple to nursing home caretaker Ranjit Dey who contacted the owner, Ranjita Ray. She, in turn, asked quack Manoj Biswas to “arrange and handover” a baby for a fee.OC Habra Goutam Mitra said, “We are also investigating whether more people were involved in the racket and when it started.”

Stay updated with all the Latest Kolhapur headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.