Day II: Inter-state sex determination, illegal abortion racket unearthed in raid
A Health Department team from Rohtak district has unearthed an illegal inter-state sex determination-cum-MTP (abortion) network with the arrest of three persons, including a doctor of Uttar Pradesh.
A woman Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) doctor of Kharkhoda town in Sonepat district, who had allegedly conducted the medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) or illegal abortion, has also been booked in this connection.
On April 12, the Rohtak district administration and the health authorities received a tip-off, stating that an illegal abortion was being conducted at a private hospital in Kharkhoda. Rohtak Deputy Commissioner Dhirendra Khadgata and Civil Surgeon Dr Ramesh Chander Arya immediately dispatched a raiding team.
The team, comprising District PC and PNDT Nodal Officer Dr Vishvjit Rathi, Dr Sanjiv Malik, Dr Vishal Chaudhary and Ranjit, raided Bhardwaj Hospital at Kharkhoda.
Inquiries made by the team members revealed that the woman doctor at the hospital had conducted illegal abortion of a Chandigarh-based woman.
“We came to know that the woman was sent to Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh on April 11 to determine the sex of her foetus. The foetus was found to be female, following which an MTP was conducted by the Kharkhauda-based woman doctor," a team member told The Tribune.
Two MTP kits were also seized from the Kharkhoda hospital during the raid.
The team members instantly prepared a decoy customer and arranged for her to be sent to Bijnor for sex-determination of her foetus.
In the ensuing raid at Royal RJ Hospital in Bijnor on April 13, three persons — a doctor, an agent and a driver — were arrested.
The arrested persons have been identified as Dr Masood, agent Suman and driver Sahil.
“Dr Masood, a Bachelor of Unani Medicine and Surgery (BUMS) doctor, was caught red-handed while conducting the ultrasound test to determine the sex of the foetus. The CCTV footage showed that the foetal sex-determination test of the Chandigarh-based woman was also conducted by the same doctor," said Dr Rathi.
He stated that Rs 19,000 of the Rs 20,000 given to the agent for getting the sex-determination test conducted were recovered during the raid.
An FIR has been registered at Bijnor city police station against the BUMS doctor of Bijnor, woman BAMS doctor of Kharkhoda, the Chandigarh woman who had got the sex-determination test conducted on herself, an agent and a driver, he added.
Haryana Tribune