Indian man held for selling baby grandson on Facebook 
 
 NEW DELHI — Police in northern India said Wednesday they had arrested a 47-year-old man for selling his newborn grandson to a local businessman in a deal that was struck on Facebook. 
 
 Feroz Khan, a resident of Ludhiana city in the northern state of Punjab 300 kilometres (200 miles) from New Delhi, had allegedly kidnapped his grandson shortly after he was born earlier this month. 
 
 Khan sought help from two temporary employees at a local hospital where his daughter gave birth, who contacted the buyer on Facebook and arranged the deal for 45,000 rupees ($830). 
 
 "All three people who conspired to sell the child have been arrested and we will be interrogating the businessman who paid the money to buy the baby," Satish Malhotra, a senior police officer in Ludhiana, told AFP. 
 
 Police have rescued the baby and returned him to his mother, Noori Khan, a divorcee, who had lodged the complaint against her father. 
 
 The three accused have been charged with kidnapping and they will be produced before a court on Wednesday. If proven guilty, they could be jailed for seven years. 
 
 In 2011, the country's federal police admitted in court that there were 815 gangs comprising more than 5,000 members involved in the kidnapping of children for prostitution and begging across India. 
 
 Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| An Indian newborn was allegedly sold for 800,000 rupees ($ 14,750) over Facebook, leading police to uncover a suspected child-trafficking racket, news reports said today. 
 
 The boy, born in a hospital in Ludhiana in the northern state of Punjab, was sold twice before the deal on the social networking site, broadcaster NDTV reported quoting police. 
 
 The infant’s grandfather allegedly first snatched the child from his own daughter, telling her he had been stillborn, to sell him to a nurse for 45,000 rupees, the report said. 
 
 The nurse, in turn, reportedly sold the baby for 300,000 rupees to a hospital lab assistant. 
 
 The infant was then allegedly put up for sale on Facebook by the lab assistant, and a businessman from New Delhi is accused of offering 800,000 rupees for him after seeing photographs. 
 
 The police raided the businessman’s house on Tuesday and recovered the child. They also arrested five people including the grandfather and another man accused of facilitating the deals, the report said. 
 
 The case was the “tip of a iceberg” of a child-trafficking scandal and more details were expected as the alleged middle-man was being questioned, police said. 
 
 Tens of thousands of children in India are thought to be trafficked every year, some for adoption but also many for bonded labour, begging or sexual exploitation. 
 
 It was the first reported case in India of child trafficking over a social networking site, the report said. 
 
 (This article was published on April 24, 2013)
– A man in India has been arrested for trying to sell his newborn grandson online. Feroz Khan, 47, is alleged to have kidnapped the baby shortly after his birth in Ludhiana, reports the AFP, telling his daughter the infant was stillborn. He reportedly sold the baby for $830 to a nurse, who sold him to a hospital lab assistant for about $5,500, who in turn sold him to a New Delhi businessman for almost $15,000, the Hindu Business Line reports. Police recovered the baby from the businessman's home. Five people have been arrested over the deals, and the baby was returned to his mother.