India, July 3 -- They came from different worlds-a nurse from Faridabad, a migrant from West Bengal, and an accountant working for lawyers in Delhi. But together, the three women made New Delhi Railway Station into their hunting ground, where they picked up toddlers from crowded platforms and sold them off to desperate, childless couples-some wanting sons, others simply seeking hope.

Between July 2023 and January 2025, Delhi Police's railway unit cracked open the racket, tracing three kidnappings to the same trio, according to three police officers who worked the case. Two children-a two-and-a-half-year-old boy and a four-month-old girl-were already sold to families in Ghaziabad and Delhi's Paharganj. A third child, a three-year-old boy,...