Sold newborn’s recovery reveals mother’s conspiracy

LUDHIANA:: Days after a 40-day-old infant, whose debt-ridden father had sold him to a Panipat woman for Rs 2 lakh, was handed over to his mother, Pooja, 26, of Iqbal Nagar, Tajpur Road, it has emerged that this woman had cooked up her own murder story to escape from her first estranged husband in 2014.

The lid was blown off the case after the woman’s former husband, Tajinder Singh, of Kharar, saw her photograph in a newspaper in connection with the case of her son from the second marriage, earlier this week. Tajinder and his father, Raju Bhola, rushed to Ludhiana police station.

“I was shocked at seeing Pooja’s photo and rushed to the Kotwali police station in Ludhiana with all the documents proving our marriage,” Tajinder said. He added that in 2014, the Kharar police booked him, his father Bhola and mother Anju under sections of dowry, killing Pooja and then disposing off her body.

“I was jailed for 17 months. My father remained in jail for six months,” he added.

WOMAN CONFESSES TO THE COVER-UP

On Thursday night, however, Pooja confessed to fleeing from Kharar and marrying Sarabjit in Ludhiana, said inspector Birbal. Tajinder and Pooja, a native of Dhuri, had wed in 2012. Within six months of their marriage, they were living separately. Tajinder said she went missing in mysterious circumstances. In 2014, police declared Pooja to be dead.