E-Paper
Inter-state roots of prenatal sex determination, illegal abortion resurface
Two cases of alleged prenatal sex determination and illegal abortion in Sangli and Kolhapur districts have once raised the ugly head of cross-border nexus with such operations carried out in Karnataka
Pune: Two cases of alleged prenatal sex determination and illegal abortion in Sangli and Kolhapur districts have once raised the ugly head of cross-border nexus with such operations carried out in Karnataka.
Between May 15 and May 30, the Karveer police in Kolhapur have arrested 10 individuals, including two doctors, one quack, one sonography machine supplier from Karnataka, two pharmacists (one each from Maharashtra and Karnataka) and agents from Gargoti in Kolhapur district for their alleged involvement in the racket.
Sangli police have arrested two doctors and their aide after the death of a 32-year-old woman at a hospital in Mahalingpur in Bagalkot district of Karnataka on May 29.
The two cases point to resurfacing of the cross-border nexus involved in illegal sex determination tests and abortions after it was first reported in 2017.
Officials said people living in border areas prefer to visit Karnataka for illegal sex determination and abortion to avoid police actions with the hideous activity flourishing along Kagal, Shahuwadi, Gargoti, Jat and Atpadi in Maharashtra and Bagalkot, Belgaum and Koppal areas of northern Karnataka.
Kishor Shinde, inspector, Karveer Police Station, said, “The illegal activity mostly goes unnoticed as sonography machines and necessary support are supplied from Karnataka. With people in border areas having cordial relations, it helps to run these centres under cover and cross to the other state if agencies are alerted.”
When such areas come under the police radar, doctors purchase portable units to run the illegal tests and operations in ghat sections, forests and deserted areas using mobile vans.
A senior police official requesting anonymity said, “Network of agents working for doctors is spread across border areas and they get ₹5,000- ₹7,000 as commission depending upon the customer. The doctors attend such patients only through referral network to avoid police action. The illegal test and operation are carried out during late night or early morning hours.”
Doctors set up small nondescript units in border villages and charge ₹25,000- ₹30,000 for sex determination test and ₹50,000- ₹75,000 for abortion per patient.
Geeta Hasurkar, member, PCPNDT Act implementation committee, Kolhapur district, said, “We have busted 10 illegal rackets from rural parts of Kolhapur since the past one year till May 2024 using sting operation. More public awareness is needed to check such illegal practices. Our probe found that some doctors even abort male babies so that couple can revisit them.”
Kolhapur police have registered seven cases under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 (PCPNDT) and booked 76 persons in four years since 2020.
Shinde said, “Most of the arrested accused are quacks with fake degree certificates from bogus universities in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They work as compounders and later set up the illegal practice in rural border areas.”
The cases
Yuvraj Govinda Chavan from Chikhali in Karveer; Dr Harshal Naik, 44, from Kolhapur; Dr Satyant Suresh Malkar, 50, from Kagal; and quack Vijay Laxman Kolaskar, 35, from Bhudargad in Kolhapur were arrested. Panhala police had booked Naik and Kolaskar for similar case in the past. The other accused include agent Sanjay Krushnat Patil, 39, from Karveer; Sagar Sitaram Vasekar, 39, from Panhala; Deepak Bapu Bagdi, 31, from Radhanagari; Suyash Sunil Hukkekari, 27, from Phulewadi; Sunil Malage, 49, from Miraj who is a pharmacist; and Prashant Vasant Jadhav, 47, from Belgaum in Karnataka who had supplied sonography machines to doctors.
Sangli police arrested two doctors and their aide after the death of a 32-year-old woman at a hospital in Mahalingpur in Bagalkot district of Karnataka on May 29. The woman, a native of Alate in Kolhapur district, died of excessive bleeding hours after she underwent abortion at the hospital staffer’s house. The arrested include Sanjay Gowli, Sangeeta Sanjay Gowli and Vijay Sanjay Gowli of Doogaon in Maharashtra, Dr Maruti Kharat of Kupwad, Dr Kotwale of Athani, one sonographer from Maharashtra and Kavita Baadanavar of Mahalingpur.
Baadanavar, who worked as an ayah (attendant) at a private hospital, was the kingpin of a female foeticide racket and the Karnataka health department had seized her house and booked her for quackery in 2019 and 2022.
In 2017, a 25-year-old woman from Mhaisal in Sangli district died during illegal abortion, and police had arrested homoeopath Babasaheb Khidrapure from Mhaisal where she had undergone. Probe revealed 19 foetuses were found buried near the homoeopath’s clinic.
Sangli has a sex ratio of 964 females for every 1,000 males, Kolhapur 953 females, slightly above Maharashtra’s 929 females per 1,000 males ratio as per the 2011 census.
Code language
Doctors use code languages to convey the result of sex determination test. Like when the doctor says, “You have to visit the hospital on Monday”, it means the result is “baby boy” as Monday is regarded as god Shiva’s day as per Hindu calendar, and if the visit is for Friday, it is “baby girl” for goddess Devi’s day. Accordingly, the decision to be taken by the couple to abort or not the child, according to a police official.
Another way is when a male doctor shares result of sex determination test that conveys the message that it is baby body and female doctor sharing the birth of baby girl. Doctors delete data of sonography machines and ensure no paperwork is done to “miss” police scanner.
The action
Mahendra Pandit, superintendent of police, Kolhapur, said, “Officers have been instructed to show zero tolerance for PCPNDT cases.”
“We have to work on multi-agency coordination as the health department is the licencing authority to operate sonography machines, ASHA workers record pregnancy cases in villages, and drug inspectors log demand and supply of sonography machines and medicines,” Pandit said.
Sandip Ghuge, superintendent of police, Sangli, said, “We are constantly in touch with our Karnataka counterpart to nab the culprits.”
Neelam Gorhe, women’s rights activist and deputy chairperson of Maharashtra Legislative Council, said that such illegal activities have come into light from border areas of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh like Jalgaon and Dhule.
“It is necessary to take Asha workers into confidence to get first-hand information about pregnant women in villages who already having girl child,” she said.
