₹20K for female foeticide: Woman’s ‘pregnancy’ a mystery

Police said the woman was unmarried

Two days after Dr Poonam Bhargav, a gynaecologist at the Panchkula civil hospital, was booked along with a peon, Baljinder, for allegedly striking a deal for aborting a female foetus for ₹20,000; officials privy to the investigation said it is not certain whether the woman who had come with the complainant was pregnant.

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Police said as per initial probe, it has been learnt that the woman was unmarried and the test reports discussed with the doctor for abortion to be of any other woman cannot be ruled out.

On the run

Meanwhile, police are also working on the mobile location of the doctor and her call details for leads to trace her and the peon. A police team raided their residences on Thursday, but to no avail.

Sector 7 police post incharge sub-inspector (SI) Brij Pal said, “The accused are at large and their mobile phones are also switched off. We have recorded statements of all the members of the inquiry committee.”

The police have sought the CCTV footage of Bhargav’s house which was not provided to them by her husband, said an official. Police are also getting details of the vehicles owned by the doctor. It is being investigated whether the doctor had left the house in a car or had gone with someone.

Probe panel appears before commission

Meanwhile, the Panchkula civil surgeon along with the inquiry committee of six doctors constituted by him appeared before the Haryana State Commission for Women on Thursday. The committee had submitted the inquiry report to the commission on Tuesday.

Bhargav was suspended on Sunday by Haryana health minister Anil Vij, after a video of her striking the alleged deal surfaced. The civil surgeon had received video clippings of the deal from two Patiala men — Amandeep Singh and Vinay Arora — on February 20.

The committee had also raided Bhargav’s house in Sector 16, Panchkula, and seized various kinds of allopathic medicines in the form of injectables, mostly used for conducting abortion. The inquiry report said Bhargav had confessed to have taken ₹8,000 advance for the abortion.