Body trade link to child deaths

Police in India are investigating whether the deaths of at least 17 people, most of them children, could be linked to the human body parts trade.

The victims' skulls and limbs were discovered in a sewer in a Delhi suburb on Friday but many torsos were missing.

The police say they are checking connections between two men they have arrested and a local doctor.

The find provoked fury among nearby slum dwellers, who said police ignored complaints about missing children.

Multiple rape

A local businessman and his servant have been arrested and questioned over multiple rape, murder and abduction allegations following protests by the victims' families.

Police in the Delhi suburb of Noida are under intense pressure to find out what happened to the missing children.

Local people, the media and political parties are all closely watching where their investigations are leading.

Many people hold the police partially responsible for the deaths.

The first disappearances were reported two years ago but the victims' parents say they were simply ignored.

Grieving parents

Most are poor migrants who work as servants in the smart villas that surround their slums. Police say that the arrested businessman, Mohinder Singh Pandher, and his helper, Satish, lured young girls and children to their deaths.

Their corpses were discovered in a drain outside the house on Friday.

The people of the area say that many more of their children are still missing.

On Monday some of them attacked policemen and vandalised the businessman's house.

Now there is just a sad vigil of grieving parents.

They are holding photos of their missing children and asking why no-one listened to them earlier.

BBC