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A Chinese man has been detained for selling his newborn daughter to a couple in need of a child. The couple who are trying to have a child after trying and failing for more than 10 years bought the baby for 4000 yuan( N208,950) last September.
According to police report, the man who was desperate for a son, was disappointed that his second child turned out to be a girl.
His mother, Li reported him to the police after realising that her granddaughter had gone missing.
The 42-year-old grandmother told police that she was going to stay at her son’s house to help take care of the newborn girl, like she did when her first granddaughter was born. To her surprise her son Xiaohui refused.
“I only saw my granddaughter a couple of times when she was born. I never saw her after that. My son wouldn’t even let me in the house,” she said, adding that she could only leave her homemade meals at their doorstep.
In early October, Li finally visited her daughter-in-law when her son was not home, but the baby was nowhere to be found.
She questioned her son about the baby’s whereabouts but he refused to answer her. Furious, she reported him to the authorities after suspecting him of selling the child.
He was interrogated by police and he admitted to selling his daughter to a couple in Hubei province’s Enshi city, more than 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) away.
Xianhui said he wanted to sell the baby girl because he had hoped for a son instead. Being unemployed, he felt under financial pressure having already had a daughter.
On October 15, Yiwu city police finally located the couple in Enshi and rescued the baby girl.
The married couple, surnamed Zhang and Xu, admitted to buying the baby online and were cooperative during investigations, police said.
It was reported that the couple and the father were detained by police. The baby has been transported back to Yiwu and is currently under the care of her mother and grandmother.
Under Chinese law, trafficking and selling women and children is punishable by five to 10 years in prison, but life sentences or death penalties can also be issued.