Kolkata, Aug 7 (IANS): Kolkata Police have traced some Bangladesh links in the city- based child trafficking racket involving around 100 people and a network of hundreds of agents and sub-agents.

While interrogating Mamata Patra, one of the main accused in the racket, it was revealed that newborns made available through the use of the wombs of surrogate mothers, were not just sold within the territories of West Bengal but also to child-less couples in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Patra and her associate Swapna Sardar, who is also in police custody, had also developed an agent network in Bangladesh which acted as the link between the buyer and seller.

The police also identified the links of two city-based In vitro fertilization (IVF) specialists in this connection and both will be questioned, a senior official of the city police said.

Through further interrogation of Patra and Sardar, the police are now trying to ascertain about the number of children trafficked to Bangladesh in this process and their details.

Raid and search operations have already been conducted at the IVF centre located at Anandapur, which acted as the principal hub in this trafficking process.

The police are also not ruling out the possibility of the child trafficking racket being spread in other states of India.

“We are interrogating those arrested in the matter about their detailed links outside West Bengal,” the city police official said.

The police came to know about this racket while probing a case where Rupali Mondal was arrested on August 1 for attempting to sell her child to another woman, Kalyani Guha.

Both Modal and Guha were taken to custody.

On July 23, a couple, Jaideb and Sathi Chowdhury, were arrested by in North 24 Parganas district for selling their own child to get money to purchase alcohol.

Kanai Chowdhury, the grandfather of the child was also arrested.