The unearthing of an illegal-abortion racket here has also exposed a man charged with raping his minor stepdaughter repeatedly for months.
Three nurses are under arrest on a charge of aborting the child of the Class-7 victim (15) on Monday in an illegal clinic at Ballaram Nagar locality of the city. The police have said that the girl was being raped for the past many months by her stepfather, who had brought her to the clinic to kill the six-month foetus in her womb.

The raid on Guru Nanak Clinic was based on a secret input to the Pre-Natal Diagnostic and Testing (PNDT) cell. The deputy commissioner and the senior superintendent of police (thermal power station) supervised the operation, as naib tehsildar Subhash Mittal led a health department team into the crackdown.

The team caught nurses Ramandeep Kaur, Paramjit Kaur, and Khusbhoo conducting the abortion on the minor and arrested them. The victim, who is from Gobindgarh village, was taken to the Bathinda Civil Hospital, where her treatment is on. "The nurses run this abortion centre. One of them also works as nurse in a private hospital in Bathinda," said Sadhu Khusla, project officer of the PNDT cell. "We are after the people who send women here for abortion."

"On the victim's statement, we registered a case of rape against her stepfather, Kala Singh (40)," said station house officer (SHO) concerned Kabal Singh. "The suspect is a labourer who married the victim's mother a few years ago. He is on the run. Civil surgeon Dr Ajay Sahni confirmed that the victim was out of danger. "If the need arises, we will complete the abortion," he said.