Kolkata,   Kolkata Police on Saturday said that it busted a fake child adoption racket that promised issueless couples children as per choice of gender and looks against hefty booking amounts.

The payments varied with age -- lower the age of the child adopted the higher the price.

After the payments were made, which were around 50 per cent of the total adoption amount, the couples were asked to wait for some time until the remaining sum was paid.

But after the booking amount was received, all connections with the concerned couple were stopped.

City police sources that one couple lodged a complaint that the said adoption centre named, Shree Ramakrishna Notun Jeevan Daan Sevashram.

The complaint was that despite paying the advance booking amount of Rs 4 lakhs, the centre was delaying in handing over the child.

Police started investigating on the basis of a mobile number through which the centre authorities used to contact the couple.

At that point of time, a sub-inspector of Haridevpur Police Station noticed a pamphlet in the area of the centre which promised child adoption.

Finally, after investigation, three masterminds in the racket namely Ranjit Das, his wife Madhabi Das and sister-in-law Supriya Roy were arrested on Friday.

Investigation revealed that neither the arrested persons not the centre had even a single child in their possession.

They also did not have any links with agencies legally authorised for arranging child adoption.

According to city police sources, their main aim was to get the advance money and then vanish from the scene.

During the course of the raid, the police recovered several adoption applications from the office of the fake centre.