In the past two years, says a 58-year-old, his son sold everything he could lay his hands on – from household goods to equipment from the small puncture‑repair shop he ran from home. “He didn’t leave a thing.”

The 58-year-old didn’t count his grandson.

Two months ago, to finance their drug addiction, the son and his partner, residents of a village in district Mansa, allegedly sold off their infant son. The two are now in judicial custody, along with a couple from another village in the district who say they “adopted” the child.

The infant is in a shelter home, and last week, hearing a PIL on the matter, the Punjab and Haryana High Court sought an urgent report on the condition and custody of the boy, and asked why he had not been kept with his mother. At a hearing on Tuesday, the state

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