Ludhiana | Sex determination centre busted with arrest of 32-yr-old man

The arrested accused has been identified as Karan Marlhi. He previously worked as a public relation officer (PRO) at a private hospital. An ultrasound machine was recovered from the sex determination clinic in Ludhiana, which Karan said he had purchased for ₹4.5 lakh from Delhi.

A joint team of health department and police busted an illegal sex determination centre in Karnal Singh Nagar, opposite Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, on Thursday and arrested a 32-year-old man.

Health department and district family welfare officer team recovered the portable ultrasound machine, which was purchased for ₹4.5 lakh from Delhi by the arrested accused, at sex determination centre operating illegally in Karnail Singh Nagar Street number 4, in Ludhiana. (Harvinder Singh/HT)

The accused has been identified as Karan Marlhi. He previously worked as a public relation officer (PRO) at a private hospital. An ultrasound machine was recovered from the clinic, which Karan said he had purchased for ₹4.5 lakh from Delhi.

During the preliminary investigation, it was found that Marlhi had been operating the centre for the past six months and he confessed to having carried out ultrasound scans of 20 to 25 pregnant women .“But, we suspect that 50 to 100 sex detection tests may have been carried out at the centre,” said district family planning officer (DFPO) Dr Harpreet Singh.

Police said they are carrying out a probe to find out from where the accused was sourcing clients and if employees of hospitals or nursing homes were involved with him.

Dr Harpreet Singh said the health department had carried out recce of the illegal centre for over a month and planted a decoy patient. After the fake patient cracked a deal with Karan, the team raided the centre and nabbed him red-handed.