Pune doctors arrested for sex determining

Two city-based doctors, Makarand Ranade and Nina Mathrani, were on Wednesday remanded in judicial custody till July 27 by a magistrate. They have been accused of conducting illegal sex determination tests on a pregnant woman.

DNA in its report, ‘Docs face criminal charges’ (July 2), had reported how the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had filed criminal complaints against the two doctors for allegedly carrying out illegal sex determination tests.

Both Ranade, a Sadashiv Peth-based gynaecologist, and Mathrani, a radiologist and sonologist with her clinic on Laxmi Road, were allegedly caught by the civic officials while conducting the test, in a sting operation carried out by a social organisation, Janwadi Mahila Sangathan, in association with government authorities.

Assistant medical officer of health of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Dr Vaishali Jadhav, had sealed the sonography machine at Mathrani’s clinic.

Jadhav had filed a criminal complaint under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection Act) Act, 1994 (PCPNDT Act) in the court of judicial magistrate first class, KP Jain-Desarda, on July 1.

The court had issued summons to the doctors to remain present before it on Wednesday. Both the suspects appeared before the court. Advocates Nandu Phadke and Harshad Nimbalkar, on behalf of Ranade and Mathrani respectively, moved applications seeking bail.

Rejecting the bail pleas, the judge made some strong observations. The judge stated that both suspects are involved in a very serious and anti-social offence and have committed offences with a cruel intention like female foeticide. “Such highly educated person are responsible for the decline in female sex ratio in Pune district. The suspects are highly influential and financially sound and have started influencing the star witness, the decoy patient,” the judge said.

It prima facie appeared that the decoy witness was sent for sex determination test with Rs9,000 and the same amount is accepted by the suspects, which is recovered by the authority. Opposing the bail applications, PMC’s lawyer, Milind Salunke, argued that if the suspects are granted bail, they would tamper with the evidence.

He added that the offence is a serious one as the doctors are pioneers in sex determination tests on pregnant women, so the bail applications be rejected.

“In a normal case, Rs300 is charged for USG (sonography) test, but Ranade charged Rs9,000 and accepted the same amount,” he said. “Moreover, the conversation between the decoy patient and Ranade was also recorded as evidence,” he added.

Refuting the charges, Phadke told the court that Ranade is a resident of Pune and has immovable property in the city, so there is no chance of his going on the run if he were granted bail. He said, “Ranade is ready to abide by the rules of the law and the machines are already sealed by the authority, so there is no question of tampering with the evidence.”

Nimbalkar told the court that Mathrani was practising for 25 years and was the only bread earner of her family as her husband is not well and she is ready to cooperate. There is no question of tampering with the evidence as all the registers and machines are sealed and confiscated by the authority.

Later, Nimbalkar and Phadke moved two more applications seeking a stay on the order of custody as they wanted to appeal to the sessions court. However, these applications were also rejected by the court.