Having set a trap with the help of a decoy customer, and five hours of following his 'agents', medical officers from Haryana caught a doctor allegedly carrying out foetus sex-determination at his private hospital in Moonak near here. But Moonak senior medical officer (SMO) Dr Kuldeep Singh and the police here did not consider it a case fit for an FIR against the doctor yet.
So far, only the hospital with its ultrasound-sonograohy machine has been sealed, and the rest, said the SMO, "the courts will decide". Sex-determination of unborn children is a major issue in the northern states as Punjab and Haryana in particular see cases of female foeticide.
Dr Surinder Nain, chief medical officer (CMO) of Sirsa in Haryana, told HT, that he and his Fatehabad counterpart had set the trap after learning of a network of agents who helped in sex-determination tests. They got a woman police constable to pose as a pregnant woman and got another person to be with her as they approached the agents. The two CMOs followed them. From Sirsa, these agents allegedly brought them to Dr Rajesh Goyal's at Amrit Hospital in Moonak via several stops.
Dr Nain said that police from Moonak were taken along as Rs 14,500 in marked currency notes were recovered from the doctor who allegedly took it as price for the test.
{{/usCountry}}Dr Nain said that police from Moonak were taken along as Rs 14,500 in marked currency notes were recovered from the doctor who allegedly took it as price for the test.
{{/usCountry}}"After a 'sting' of five hours from Sirsa to Moonak via Fatehabad, Ratia and Tohana, we caught the doctor; but now I've come to know that instead of ensuring immediate arrest the local authorities have not even filed an FIR yet," he said. According to him, "the doctor might have network in Haryana and Punjab as some people in Sirsa had links with him."
The Moonak SMO only said, "After the complaint, we have sealed the clinic and ultrasound machine and now action will be taken by court." Sangrur chief medical officer (CMO) Subodh Gupta confirmed that the hospital was sealed under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostics (PNDT) Act.
As for the police, DSP Bimal Sharma, who had sent cops with the Haryana officers, said they would lodge an FIR only after the Moonak SMO would file a report. Sangrur SSP Mandeep Singh Sidhu said he was not aware of the raid yet.