A one-and-a-half-year-old child, allegedly sold to another person for Tk 1 lakh in Dashmina upazila, was rescued on Sunday night.

Musa was rescued from a house in Romanathsen village of Alipur Union through a joint initiative of the upazila administration and police, said Md Atiqul Islam, officer-in-charge (OC) of Dashmina Police Station.

In the presence of Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md Mahmud Hasan Mridha, the child was handed over to his grandparents, Mofiz Munshi and Mahfuza Begum.

The allegation was confirmed after authorities recovered a written agreement made on a Tk 100 non-judicial stamp.

Regarding the agreement, accused Md Maruf of Boro Gopaldi village under Betagi-Sankipur Union admitted that he had taken money after handing over his son to another person.

However, he claimed that the child had been given for adoption, not sold.

Maruf admitted his mistake and apologised.

Earlier on Saturday morning, Maruf asked her mother to dress Musa around 8am and then left home, saying he was taking the child to the market.

When Maruf and Musa did not return for a long time, family members started searching for them in different places.

At one stage, the family contacted Maruf's maternal uncle Bahadur Mia. The family said that, during questioning, Maruf initially did not disclose anything about the child.

Later, according to the family, Maruf confessed that he had sold Musa to Imran Hossain of Romanathsen village under Alipur Union of Dashmina upazila.