Amid a heated debate in the Chhattisgarh assembly Thursday, Speaker Dharamlal Kaushik ruled that a house committee will probe into a TV sting expose of alleged sale of a minor by an orphanage centre based on outskirts of capital Raipur.

'Since the allegations are of serious nature, I am handing over the probe to the assembly's house committee on child and women welfare,' Kaushik announced.

He added the probe committee will submit its report in the next assembly session.

Police had arrested Narayan Rao, the director of the Gurukul Ashram orphanage, last week after a local news channel carried out a sting operation in which Rao was allegedly filmed talking of money in exchange of an infant girl.

The orphanage has at present 52 children below 16 years of age, most of whose one or both parents were killed in Maoist violence in the state's restive Bastar region.