CHENNAI: Police are searching for a man who locked up his pregnant girlfriend for a week while he struck a deal to sell their unborn child in Tiruvallur, 60km from Chennai.
Police said T John Victor, 27, a resident of Kondancherry near Tiruvallur, went into hiding on Friday after 18-year-old G Bharathi escaped and lodged a police complaint at the Tiruvallur all-woman police station.
Bharathi said in her complaint that Victor had locked her up in a room and offered to sell their child to a couple soon after birth for Rs2 lakh.
Investigators said Bharathi was now with her parents. They are also searching for two of Victor's friends who helped him detain Bharathi.
"After Victor learned that Bharathi had escaped and approached police, he disappeared from the house with his friends," a senior officer said. He said a police team led by the inspector of the Tiruvallur all-woman police station is searching for the suspects.
A preliminary police investigation found that Bharathi lived in Kondancherry Colony and was Victor's neighbour. "Bharathi told us that she started a relationship with Victor and trusted him completely," an investigating officer said.
Bharathi said she informed Victor that she was pregnant and asked him to marry her.
"Victor was annoyed and told her that he would marry her only if she had an abortion," the officer said. "She agreed and went with him to a hospital in Poonamallee where doctors told them it would be too risky for Bharathi to have an abortion. Victor then took Bharathi to a friend's house in the same area and, after introducing her as his wife, detained her there."
Bharathi told police that she overheard Victor speaking to a friend on his cellphone, telling him that he had detained her and had made a deal to sell the child for Rs2 lakh to a childless couple in Ponnagaram, Tiruvallur.
She escaped from the house and spoke to her parents after a passerby heard her story and helped her.
"Her father Ganesan and relatives rescued her and took her to a hospital nearby," the officer said. "She later lodged a police complaint against Victor."
