Woman dies post illegal abortion; doctor, ANM among four booked - Hindustan Times
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Woman dies post illegal abortion; doctor, ANM among four booked

Hindustan Times, Patiala | By, Patiala
Jun 23, 2018 03:53 PM IST

“Internal bleeding and excessive accumulation of fluid in her private parts were the reason behind her death.”

 A week after a 25-year-old woman died following an alleged illegal abortion, police on Friday booked four people, including a woman doctor and a health department’s auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM). 

Kirana Devi of Rathia village was already dead when she was brought to a local private hospital, following which the health department got her postmortem examination conducted from a board of doctors at government Rajindra hospital on June 15.

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Health department’s district welfare officer Dr Sukhminder Singh said her autopsy report revealed that her private parts were severely damaged due to illegal termination of pregnancy. 

“Internal bleeding and excessive accumulation of fluid in her private parts were the reason behind her death. On further investigating the matter, it was found that she had undergone an abortion after determining the sex of her foetus,” the officer added. 

He said the department then prepared a detailed report into the matter and informed the Sanaur police station to bring the accused to book. 

Police have registered case against Kirana’s husband Angrej Singh, midwife Meena Rani, a quack Malkit Singh, and a woman doctor identified as Dr Sodhi under Sections 314 (death caused by act done with intent to cause miscarriage), 315 (act done with intent to prevent child being born alive) and other relevant sections of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition Of Sex Selection) Act (PCPNDT Act) and Medical Termination Of Pregnancy (MTP) Act besides Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. 

Sanaur station house officer Gurinderpal Singh Bal said during investigation, it was found that Angrej had contacted the midwife and quack to get the sex of his wife’s foetus determined. 

“The trio then approached an unregistered hospital centre in Sanaur, where Kirana, who was three-month pregnant, went through the abortion process,” the SHO added. 

He said a manhunt has been launched to arrest the accused.

Meanwhile, Dr Sukhminder said midwife Meena Rani was a habitual offender as she was caught red-handed while carrying illegal activities of sex determination and MTPs earlier as well. 

“The department has written to the state government for termination of her services,” he added. 

He said Malkit was also a history-sheeter as he was also caught performing sex-determination tests three months ago in Mandi Ahemadgarh. 

Second such case in four days 

On June 20, the health departments of Patiala and Kaithal (in Haryana) had conducted a raid at an illegal sex-determination centre at Bahadurgarh town situated on the outskirts of Patiala city. 

A case has already been registered against Dr Karamjit Kaur and her husband Manpreet Singh, who used to run Vadi Hospital, under PCPNDT Act and MTP Act, besides Sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. 

The hospital was not authorised and registered to carry out procedures related to medical termination of a pregnancy. 

Following complaints of illegal procedures being carried out at the centre, a joint operation was launched and a decoy patient — a pregnant woman — was sent to meet the doctors at Vadi Hospital. She was given 15,000 to pay the doctors for a sex-determination test. 

The team had also recovered equipments used in sex determination and foetus doppler tests along with abortion pills and even found a foetus on the hospital premises.

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