Parvati Devi, in her mid-20s, a resident of Chandchaur village under Ujiarpur police station, sold her son to another woman, Shanti Devi, of a village of neighbouring Begusarai district Sunday.

"My wife was forced to sell our son to pay a debt she had taken from a local self-help group after some people associated with the group exerted pressure on her to return the money. I was not aware of the sale till police recovered our baby from the woman who paid for him," said Parvati's husband, Ram Babu, who works in New Delhi as a labourer.

A district police official said some relatives of Ram Babu informed the local police that Parvati had sold her son. The police swung into action on hearing of the sale, registered a case and began investigations.

"Police detained two women, one of whom had bought the boy," an official said.

A similar case was reported only two months ago, when a poor woman sold her four-month-old son for a mere Rs.62 in Araria district to a Nepalese couple. That infant has still not been recovered.