Pregnant women would be charged ₹15,000-20,000 for foetal sex determination and ₹20,000-25,000 for abortion of the female foetus.
Published Oct 25, 2023 | 9:38 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 25, 2023 | 9:38 PM
(Representational image/Creative Commons)
The Bengaluru City Police told reporters on Wednesday, 25 October, that they had busted a foetal sex determination racket in Bengaluru, Mysuru, and Mandya.
They said they arrested four persons in connection with the racket earlier this month, when they busted the racket, and also launched a manhunt to nab a doctor involved in it.
The police said that the racket was operating from a sugar factory’s jaggery processing unit located at Hosahalli in the Mandya district, after they received information and raided the illegal medical laboratory setup.
The arrested have been identified as Shivalingegowda, a resident of Mysuru; Nayan Kumar, a resident of Mandya; Naveen Kumar, a resident of Pandavapura in Mandya; and TM Veeresh, a native of the Davanagere district.
A senior police officer told South First that they had formed a team to pursue a medical practitioner, identified as Dr Mallikarjun, and his associate Siddesh, who have been absconding since the raids.
“Mallikarjun is a relative of the prime accused Veeresh, and our men have also detained Shivalingegowda’s wife Sunanda,” the officer said.
According to the police, Veeresh was the prime accused. They said he would perform ultrasonography to determine the sex of the foetus and inform the couple or their family members.
A little over a week ago, Baiyappanahalli Police Station’s Police Inspector (PI) M Prashanth received information about a gang operating in Bengaluru and its neighbouring districts that was taking pregnant women to Mandya for sex determination of the foetus.
They would charge anywhere from ₹15,000 to ₹20,000 for determining the sex of the foetus, said the police.
If it was a girl child, they would even arrange for a doctor to perform an abortion — either by pills or by dilation and curettage (D&C) — based on the age of the foetus, police sources told South First.
For this, the gang charged the women or their families anywhere between ₹20,000 and ₹25,000, they added.
Prashanth, along with his team, were checking vehicles on the Old Madras Road when they spotted a car that first stopped at a distance and then took a deviation through another road.
Suspecting something amiss, the cops pursued the vehicle and intercepted it at the next traffic signal. In it, they found a pregnant woman along with three men, including the driver.
When the inspector questioned the pregnant woman, she blurted out that they had gone to a sugar factory in Mandya where a scan was done and the sex of her foetus was determined.
The PI and his subordinates took the three men back to the sugar factory in Mandya, where they found a laboratory setup inside a jaggery processing unit. The cops also found five-six pregnant women at the centre and took them in for inquiries.
The police then conducted a raid and seized the ultrasonography machine and other accessories, including a hospital bed. The cops then arrested four people, including Veeresh, from the illegal laboratory.
Upon interrogating the accused, the police learnt that they had been running this racket over the past three and a half years, a senior police officer told South First.
Many pregnant women had visited the setup and learnt about the sex of their foetuses, he added.
Shivalingegowda had worked in laboratories before and Veeresh worked with his uncle Dr Mallikarjun, said the officer, adding that Naveen and Nayan were identifying pregnant women who needed to know the gender of the foetus.
The accused told the police that one of them owned the sugarcane farm in Hosahalli in Mandya, within which the jaggery processing unit was located.
They had set up all the necessary equipment to conduct such tests at the jaggery processing unit, a senior police officer said.
Upon further interrogation, Veeresh revealed to the police that they would shift the laboratory setup constantly to escape detection.
“They would shift the laboratory setup every week to different places in the sugarcane farm,” said the cops.
The police said that they had traced seven women who underwent such tests, and that notices had been issued to them.
Of these, only one woman had given birth to two girls and wanted her third to be male. However, she underwent an abortion after coming to know that she was pregnant with a girl again, the officer said.
All the six others were having babies for the first time, and they underwent abortion after they got to know that it was a female foetus. All of them were from middle-class families, the officer added.
The police have registered five accused under the Pre-conception And Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act — also known as the Prohibition of Sex Selection Act.
They have also been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 511 (attempts to commit offences punishable with any imprisonment) and 312 (whoever voluntarily causes a pregnant woman to miscarry).
However, the maximum punishment, if the accused are convicted, would be three years’ imprisonment.
The accused can also get bail easily during trial stages as the maximum punishment for such cases is jail for less than seven years.
