Baby Sold On Facebook: Grandfather Sells 3-Day-Old After Telling Daughter Her Child Was Dead

A grandfather allegedly sold his 3-day-old grandson on Facebook after telling his daughter her child died, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported.

Local authorities in Punjab, India, said the man, who has only been identified as Firoz, took Rs 45,000, or nearly $850 USD. A hospital nurse and her accomplice were involved in the illegal sale of the infant.

The child was later sold to a Delhi-based businessman for Rs 800,000, which translates to nearly $15,000 USD for a deal that was set up through Facebook, the British news site wrote.

The mother, who has only been named as Noora, gave birth to her son on April 8 in Ludhiana, local news reports said, and she was released the following day.

On April 10, the nurse, Sunita, and another hospital employee, Gurpreet Singh, took the baby away from Noora after claiming he was sick. The next day the new mother was told her baby was dead.

Two days later her father, Firoz, was given Rs 45,000 by people Noora didn’t know, and then her father left their home. She became suspicious about her father’s new wealth and filed a missing child report with police.

It wasn’t long before authorities found Firoz, who came clean about the entire plot during interrogation. The police soon went back to the hospital where the baby was born, found him alive and well, and returned him to Noora.

[Click here to see pictures of the mother and child reunited]

According to the Daily Mail, police believe the nurse and her accomplice sold the child to a middleman who then arranged a deal with a Dehli-based businessman on Facebook.

The nurse has been arrested for child trafficking and police are currently trying to apprehend the middleman, the businessman and anyone else who might have been involved with the scandal.

Firoz apparently told authorities he tried to sell his own grandson because he wanted to arrange a second marriage for his daughter after her husband left her in February. He reportedly said it would be hard to find another husband for his daughter if she was already raising another man’s child.

Ludhiana Commissioner of Police Ishwar Singh told NDTV: "So he thought he should get rid off the child of her daughter from her first husband by selling him off.”