By Indira Aryal

Kathmandu, July 4: Can you believe parents sell their four-day baby? But police are now investigating into a couple of Damak, Jhapa in State 1 for selling their four-day baby son.
The father of the baby is now in police custody, and the mother is also suspected for her involvement in the crime.
The baby-boy sold to a childless couple of Jorpati, Kathmandu was successfully rescued during the lockdown, police said.
The father left home taking the baby boy to pierce his ears as per the Nepali tradition on the fourth day of his birth, according to the police report. “The father disappeared for five days. On the fifth day, the father returned empty-handed. The mother asked about their child. The father said he had killed the baby and threw away.”
The case remained unreported for four months after the child went missing, but a dispute between the couple led the mother to file a case in the police on June 6.
The police, 14 days after the filing of the case, traced and rescued the child from Jorpati, Kathmandu on June 20. After two days, the baby was handed over to the police of Damak.
Rescuing the baby
Area Police Office Damak sent a letter to the National Coordination Centre for Children at Risk (NCCR) under the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens and informed over the phone that a child had gone missing from Damak four months ago.
After arresting the father, the police in Damak learnt that the child was in Kathmandu.
According to Saroj Adhikari, chief at the National Coordination Centre for Children at Risk (NCCR), a child rescue team was deployed to investigate into the case on the very day the case was filed. The rescue team searched for the call details of the parents from Teku Police Office. 
The call details revealed the phone number of adopting mother and involvement of two taxi drivers and a local journalist in bringing the newborn from Damak to Kathmandu, said Adhikari.
They inquire the local journalist and taxi drivers, and one of drivers revealed the location of the adopting mother, informed Adhikari.
The police investigation team with the driver reached Jorpati. They found the baby in the house where the taxi driver had dropped. The foster parents did not agree that they had bought the child, but accused the father of the boy stating that he gave them the baby to take care well as his real mother was in no condition to take care of the boy.
The baby was rescued on the same day, and the police sent the baby to Damak. The team handed over the baby to the real mother in the presence of Damak police and baby’s relatives. Both the mother and baby are in the Care Home in Damak for further investigation, Adhikari said.
The boy is now five-and-a-half-months old. Police are further investigating into the case as the mother had reported about the lost child only four months after his disappearance, and involvement of money for the baby.