Lucknow, Jan 1 (DHNS): Reportedly unable to pay for the treatment of her ailing husband, a woman in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district, about 250 km from here, sold her newborn son for Rs 42,000.
According to reports, the woman, identified as Sanju Devi, a resident of Dhakia Khoh village in the district, had taken a loan from a local moneylender to pay for her husband's treatment.
The woman's husband, Harswaroop Maurya, worked as a construction labourer and was seriously injured after an under-construction wall had caved in while he was working on a site around three months ago.
The family was on the brink of starvation as Maurya was bedridden and his wife's time was consumed in running from one doctor to another.
''We had no option...I was bedridden with injuries....there was nothing to eat," Maurya said.
Sanju said that they did not have ration cards. "My husband was the only earning member in the family," she said, adding that she had to take loans to pay for her husband's treatment.
The matter came to light when the neighbours did not find the newborn in Sanju Devi's lap and inquired about him, reports said.
District officials said that a probe would be conducted in the matter.
"The family will be provided with every possible help after the report is received...the government will bear the expenses of Maurya's treatment," said a senior official in Bareilly on Monday.