Guntur: The safety of Baby Bhavani -- the three-month-old at the centre of NDTV expose about sale of babies for adoption in Telangana -- had been a concern. Before the story was aired, the NDTV team went back to Nalgonda to ensure that she and her mother were all right, and found a hard truth: Bhavani was the second baby her mother was being forced to part with.
At Nalgonda, a NDTV team posing as a childless couple, had found been offered a baby girl for Rs 30,000 at a government-run home. But chances were that if the broker - a Congress vice-sarpanch called Kamli, who is now being questioned by the police -- got wind of the story, she could remove the "evidence", little Bhavani. She could even be sold off to someone else.
The NDTV alerted the local police, scanned hospital records and visited several tribal hamlets to locate the baby and her mother, Rajitha.
It was late evening, when her family admitted that Kamli had persuaded Rajitha and her baby to move to Guntur - around 200 km from Nalgonda.
"Kamli was worried that there may be a police case,'' said a relative of Rajitha. The woman had given birth to a boy five days after Rajitha give birth to a girl. Under the same roof, her husband celebrated by drinking beer, while Rajitha's husband mourned the birth of his third daughter, she said.
NDTV visited Rajitha's maternal home, hoping to check on her safety. Her brother, who is studying engineering in Hyderabad, said they were safe. A day later, NDTV was able to trace Rajitha.
The 22-year-old said she had given birth to three baby girls in less than four years.
After her second daughter was born, the broker Kamli had paid her Rs 5000 for "hospital expenses" and took the baby away, Rajitha said. "Once, I asked her about my baby. She said, 'Are you even capable of looking after her?' I felt humiliated and I couldn't ask again,'' Rajitha said.
She said she did not wish to give away the new baby, whom she had named Bhavani. "This baby was born on a Friday. She will be lucky for me,'' Rajitha said.
But the family was in dire straits. Her husband's autorickshaw had been seized by financiers for non-repayment of loans. There was no food at home, even for her eldest daughter Samantha.
It was when Rajitha's husband Swamy started explain why they considered a boy important, little Samantha walked up to him to share the fruits that NDTV had taken as a gift for the family.