New Delhi, Sept. 14 -- The Delhi high court has denied bail to a man accused of trafficking newborns for money, observing that reducing children to items of trade and transferring them for cash amounts to treating them as commodities and constitutes exploitation.

In her order delivered on Tuesday, justice Swarana Kanta Sharma said the case "portrayed a grim picture" of poor parents being induced to hand over their infants to a syndicate that allegedly sold the children for profit. She stressed that such acts have serious social repercussions and represent the exploitation of the most vulnerable sections of society-newborn babies and their distressed parents.

The accused was booked under the Indian Penal Code and the Juvenile Justice Act...