Dentist arrested in Hooghly's Uttarpara for child trafficking, two kids rescued

An interstate child trafficking racket has been busted, leading to the arrest of a female doctor from Uttarpara in West Bengal. The accused, Dr. Mausumi Bandopadhyay, was apprehended on Friday morning during a joint raid by Mumbai Police and Uttarpara Police, and two young children were rescued from her residence.

Dr. Bandopadhyay, who claims to be working as a dentist at a hospital in Odisha, was staying in the Gyanendra Avenue area. Her name surfaced during the interrogation of three individuals previously arrested by Wadala Truck Terminal Police Station in Mumbai, all allegedly involved in a child trafficking network. Based on their confession, a four-member Mumbai Police team arrived in West Bengal on Thursday to trace and arrest her.

With local police support, the raid was conducted early Friday. Two children—a five-year-old and a two-year-old—were found in her house and immediately taken into protective custody. Dr. Bandopadhyay was produced before the Srirampur court and has been remanded to transit custody, with plans to transport her to Mumbai on Saturday for further investigation.

Police sources confirmed that the Mumbai team had officially notified their intent to conduct a search and rescue operation tied to a larger trafficking network. Investigations are now being extended to explore if more children were trafficked and whether any hospital staff or institutions were complicit.

This case has sparked widespread concern. With previous cases of child trafficking reported from areas like Santragachi, where a couple was caught at the railway station, the arrest of a qualified doctor from a residential area has reignited fears of a wider, possibly organized trafficking syndicate operating in Bengal and beyond.