West Bengal CID has accused a Jalpaiguri NGO of carrying out a child adoption racket.
A West Bengal NGO being probed for allegedly selling newborn babies to buyers that include childless couples in India and abroad had forged government approvals to do so.
Two women, the NGO's chief Chandana Chakraborty and its chief adoption officer, Sonali Mondal, were arrested by the state Criminal Investigation Department over the weekend.
But it is Ms Chakraborty's links with a local BJP leader to help them with funds and other concessions has brought the BJP new worries in a state where the party has been anxious to expand its footprint. "She will have to appear before the police... No one can escape from the law," said Dilip Ghosh, State BJP President.
Juhi Choudhury, the local BJP leader, is on the run, CID officers alleged. Ms Chaudhury was trying to help them get in touch with influential leaders and government officials, police sources said.
The state's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) - that busted the flourishing racket in Jalpaiguri - arrested two women, the NGO's chief Chandana Chakraborty and its chief adoption officer, Sonali Mondal, over the weekend.
This is the second baby-selling racket detected in the state over the past few months. In the first, police found how some nursing homes in 24 Parganas district in southern part of the state admitted single, pregnant women. The unwed mothers were also paid some money on the condition that they would give up their babies.
Ms Chakraborty's NGO in Jalpaiguri district 600 km away from Kolkata, had tweaked this formula to make money out of miseries of the women.
Her NGO ran a home for destitute women and an orphanage in the district.
The home for destitute women helped her identify pregnant women - poor, single or deserted young mothers to be - and take them in. Sometimes, they also held health camps in remote parts of the district. Once the babies were delivered, she would persuade them to give up their babies that would be sold.