KUCHING: An unwed foreign woman’s attempt to sell her newborn baby girl was foiled when police arrested her and a local middleman, and subsequently rescued the infant early yesterday morning.
State CID chief Datuk Zulkifli Hassan said the 31-year-old foreigner and the 51-year-old local man were nabbed at Batu Kawah New Township where the alleged sale was taking place.
“Acting on information received, we were able to rescue the three-day-old infant girl and also apprehend the baby’s mother and the middleman.
“Both suspects have since been remanded for seven days to facilitate further investigation under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons (ATIP) Act 2007,” said Zulkifli when contacted yesterday.
He added that initial investigation revealed the woman, who was previously a house maid, was not part of any baby-selling syndicate and had voluntarily offered to sell her newborn child for an agreed price of RM17,000 after giving birth at the Sarawak General Hospital here.
“She somehow made contact with the local man, who acted as a middleman in trying to find interested buyers for the baby.”
According to a source, the police team arrested the man at a 24-hour eatery around 7am and he then led them to a nearby snooker premises where the newborn was found in the care of three local women.
The police were then led to a shop house unit not far away where the infant’s mother was staying and arrested her as well.
Zulkifli, meanwhile, said police had sent the baby for a medical checkup and will conduct a DNA test to determine that the infant was the foreign woman’s child.