The Tamil Nadu Police have unearthed a state-wide network involved in trafficking children for Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 and rescued seven kids.
The breakthrough came during investigations into an attempted kidnap of a girl child from a government hospital, police said Wednesday.
Police have so far arrested four persons, including a woman, who allegedly kidnapped children for supply, and a man, Rajan, running a children's home in Valliyoor in the district, from where the victims were sold for child labour or to childless couple.
Seven children have been rescued by the police in the past week, police said, adding that the probe in on.
The network came to light during investigations by a special team of Tiruchirappalli Police, led by Inspector Sundaramurthy, following the arrest of the woman, Dhanamani, who landed in police custody last week after an attempt to kidnap a child from a government hospital at Tiruchirappalli in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu.
Sundaramurthy said Dhanamani was part of the network involved in selling children for rates ranging from Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000. "We have rescued seven children and five of them have been handed over to their parents. We are in the process of tracing the parents of two other children."
Following this, the government hospitals were being closely monitored throughout the state while an alert had been sounded to monitor all children's homes, officials said.