Illegal sex test centre busted in Ambala, 2 held

The accused used to fool customers by using oxygen machines to determine the sex of the foetus, officials said.

The district health department has unearthed an illegal sex-determination centre in Vishnu Vihar here and arrested two men on Friday evening.

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The accused used to fool customers by using oxygen machines to determine the sex of the foetus, officials said.

As per details, a team lead by deputy civil surgeon-cum-nodal-officer PC-PNDT Dr Balwinder, after being tipped off by an informer, roped in a volunteer pregnant woman to give ₹25,000 to the tout, identified as Sohan Lal alias Sonu of Zaffarpur village in Ambala’s Barara, for arranging the foetal sex determination. The quack, Surender Singh of Vishnu Vihar, performed the woman’s sonography.

“Sonu called the decoy near Manav Chowk for the advance amount and then she was taken to the quack’s residence on a bike, where the test was performed and the sex of the foetus was declared as male. The team that was following them raided the centre and recovered ₹20,000, the machine and handed over both the accused to the police for further investigation,” said Dr Balwinder.

Ambala Sadar police station in-charge Suresh said, “The FIR was lodged under sections 120-B and 420 of the IPC and relevant sections of the PNDT Act. They were presented in a court on Saturday and sent to judicial custody.”