The five-month-old girl child abducted from Pollachi and found near Anamalai on Thursday night had been sold for Rs 90,000 to a couple without children.
Muthupandi, 51, and his wife, natives Angalakurichi Village, nearly 15 km away from Pollachi, were childless "for 20 years". They were seemingly convinced by the accused that the baby was from an orphanage.
C Sreenivasan, DSP of Valparai told Onmanorama that the baby was unharmed and healthy.
The police have arrested Ramar, 45 a native of Angalakurichi and his associate Murukesan, 29, of Anamalai for abducting and selling the baby. The duo has no past criminal records, the police said.
A special team led by Inspector Karpagam of Anamalai had cracked the case.
The two abductors and Muthupandi, who purchased the child, have been remanded. Cases have been registered under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 363 (kidnapping) read with sections 80 and 81 of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
Here's what happened
Manikandan and Sangeetha are vagabonds who collect used clothes and sell them on the streets.
The couple from Mysore have four children and the five-month-old girl is the youngest.
On Tuesday, the first accused, Ramar approached Sangeetha and took the baby from her saying he wanted to cuddle it. He offered Rs 50 to the family telling them to buy 'chicken 65' for the elder child before abducting the baby.
A CCTV visual that has gone viral shows the child's mother following them. However, the police do not suspect that they were aware of the intention of the accused. The child's father had approached the police with a complaint.
