The accused, Dr Tejas Gandhi and his wife Dr Priti Gandhi, who ran the Siya Maternity and Surgical Home, are suspected to have conducted at least 36 gender-based abortions since May 2016
In an echo of the female foeticide scandal in Sangli earlier this year, the Solapur police have now arrested a doctor couple in Akluj, 300 km from Mumbai, for allegedly conducting sex determination and gender-selective abortions.
The accused, Dr Tejas Gandhi (43) and his wife Dr Priti Gandhi (41), who ran the Siya Maternity and Surgical Home, are suspected to have conducted at least 36 gender-based abortions since May 2016. The facility did not have valid registrations to conduct Medical Termination of Pregnancies (MTP), either.
Ironically, Priti is involved in a 'Save the Girl Child' campaign in the area. The arrests happened on Thursday night after an anonymous tip-off led to a cross-district operation.
"We received an anonymous call about the wife of a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan from Satara undergoing sex selection and female foeticide in 2016 as well as this year," said social activist Varsha Deshpande of the Lek Ladki Abhiyaan.
She claimed the Gandhis charged the jawan Rs 13,000 for the abortion and alleged that the couple conducted both sex determination tests and MTP.
A decoy operation led the activists and police to one Sikandar Shaikh, who conducted gender determination using a mobile veterinary sonography machine at Kashil on the Karad-Satara highway.
Shaikh, and his agent Ashok Patil from Satara – both of whom have been booked in similar cases earlier – were arrested by the local police; their links led to Gandhi's nursing home.
"The hospital did not have any registration as a MTP centre though they had permissions for sonographies. Despite their denials, we found MTPs had taken place there," said Dr Mallikarjun Pattanshetty, civil surgeon, Solapur. He added that they had found register notings for 36 patients with diagnosis for MTP procedures but that the case papers were kept blank.
"All the abortions are female foeticides and the doctors would conduct MTPs after sex determination," said Mangesh Chavan, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Solapur. "So far we have understood that five out of 36 people had undergone sex determination in the hospital," he added.
Officials said Tejas and his father Dr Pradeep Gandhi (72) were accused in a similar MTP-related case about a decade ago, but were exonerated by the High Court in 2013.
In a statement, Dr Ashok Tambe, president, Indian Medical Association (IMA), Maharashtra, said they had issued a show-cause notice to the couple "and shall be taking further strong steps including suspension as per IMA constitution."
FORMER FOETICIDE
- In May, the Sangli police arrested homeopath Babasaheb Khidrapure and found 19 foetuses dumped near Mhaisal village.
- In 2012, the police nabbed Sudam and Saraswati Munde in Beed after revelations about sex determination and female foeticide by the influential doctor couple.
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