Continuing its investigation into a sex determination racket busted in October, the Baiyyappanahalli police on Sunday arrested five people for conducting female infanticide, officers familiar with the matter said.
The case came to light on October 25, when during a routine vehicle check on Old Madras Road police intercepted an SUV that was being driven in a suspicious manner. The police confronted the five people sitting inside the car, including a pregnant woman. The police questioned the woman, who reportedly told the police that they had gone to a makeshift lab in Mandya, where a scan was done to determine the sex of her foetus.
Those taken into custody are: Dr Chandan Ballal, a doctor at a private hospital in Mysuru, his wife Meena, Rizma (a receptionist at another private hospital in Mysuru), Dr Thulasiram from Chennai, and a lab technician named Nissar, the officer said, adding that so far, nine people have been arrested as part of the investigation.
In October, the police had detained five people namely, Shivanje Gowda, Viresh, Naveen Kumar, and Nayan Kumar, in relation to the case. These people had been operating out of a sugarcane crushing unit in Mandya, where they used to identify pregnant women and conducted scans. Upon detecting a female foetus, they used to perform abortions. The ongoing investigation revealed that this racket used to perform around 20-25 sex determination tests and abortions per month, for the last three years.
“The accused have been engaging in this illegal activity for the last three years at a sugar cane crushing unit in Mandya. According to the investigation, they have been involved in over 900 cases of infanticide, charging ₹25,000 per abortion and distributing the proceeds among themselves,” a senior police officer familiar with the matter said.
{{/usCountry}}“The accused have been engaging in this illegal activity for the last three years at a sugar cane crushing unit in Mandya. According to the investigation, they have been involved in over 900 cases of infanticide, charging ₹25,000 per abortion and distributing the proceeds among themselves,” a senior police officer familiar with the matter said.
{{/usCountry}}The police have also seized a private hospital in Udayagiri area of Mysuru, and an Ayurvedic Day Care Center on Rajkumar Road in the Bengaluru in connection with the case.
Apart from sex determination, the accused people used to engaged in female foeticide at a location in Hullenahalli Hadya of Mandya taluk. This area, surrounded by sugarcane fields, served as a clandestine site for their operations. The field was owned by Naveen and the sugarcane cultivation used to serve as a cover for their illicit activities.
The accused used to reached out to pregnant women through intermediaries, conducting scans using a machine in one of the rooms at their covert location. Pregnant women were brought to the site in a private vehicle for scans, and upon detecting a female foetus, immediate abortion procedures used to be done, the police added.