A 43-year-old dentist from West Bengal has been arrested for her alleged involvement in a baby-selling racket. Police said a complaint was registered after a two-year-old boy went missing in July 2024. Following the complaint, four persons—including the toddler’s father—were arrested. Earlier this week, police rescued the boy and made a fresh arrest in the case.
According to police officials, the dentist has been identified as Reshma Santosh Kumar Banerjee. Her role came to light during the interrogation of the previously arrested accused: Anil Purvaya, Asma Shaikh, Sharif Shaikh, and Asha Pawar, who were arrested from Mumbai and Hyderabad. Purvaya is the father of the missing child.
An officer said, “The father, in collusion with others, had sold the two-year-old for Rs 1.6 lakh. After their arrest, the accused claimed they had handed over the baby to a woman identified as Banerjee at Bhubaneswar Railway Station in Odisha.”
A team was subsequently dispatched, and based on the information provided by the accused, police began looking for the suspect. They later learned that Banerjee was working at Hi-Tech Dental Hospital in Bhubaneswar.
When the team reached the hospital, the authorities informed them that she had left the job to join another hospital in the same city.
“We went to the second dental hospital, but she had quit that job too,” an officer added. “We then collected all available information from them and managed to obtain her residential address in West Bengal.”
Personnel from the Wadala Truck Terminal police station travelled to Hooghly district in West Bengal, where they found the suspect along with the two-year-old boy and another three-year-old girl.
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The girl was handed over to an NGO in the area, while Banerjee was arrested and produced before a court. She was brought to Mumbai on a transit remand, and the rescued two-year-old boy has been admitted to a hospital in Mumbai.
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