Man who sold his children held

A 40-year-old man belonging to Vellapallam who had reportedly sold two of his three children – a four-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter – and three accomplices were arrested on Thursday by the Nagore police.

Police sources said M. Ashraf Ali, who had the children under his care after he was estranged from his wife, took the help of his friend Hasan Mohammed, an autorickshaw driver, and two women Mehrunnisha and Fathima, to sell his three-year daughter to a couple in Kovilpatti.

Police sources said the whereabouts of his four-year-old son was not known yet.

Ashraf Ali who had initially deceived the authorities into believing that his daughter, whom he had entrusted with Hasan Mohammed for admission in an institution in Madurai had been sold by the latter without his knowledge to the couple in Kovilpatti, had later admitted his complicity and had also reportedly confessed that he had sold his four-year-old son to a couple in Kancheepuram.

The sordid issue would not have come to light had Ashraf Ali not demanded more money from the Kovilpatti couple.

Remanded

All the four were arrested under sections of child trafficking and remanded in judicial custody.

District Child Protection Unit Officer of Nagapattinam Sivakumar said a one-and-half-year-old son found to be under the care of Ashraf Ali was housed in Annai Sathya Home in Nagapattinam.

The three-year-old girl will also be brought to the Home from Tuticorin on Monday. Efforts were on to trace the four-year-old boy, he said.