Khandala govt doctor booked for female foeticide

A government medical officer, who has been allegedly performing abortions of female foetuses in his private clinic, has been booked in Ahire village of Khandala taluka on Sunday evening.

This case has exposed the inter-district racket of sex determination tests and sex selective abortions of female foetuses.

The accused doctor has been identified as Dr Khalil Tamboli. Health officer of Khandal taluka, Dr Ravindra Korde, had lodged a complaint against Tamboli at Khandala police station.

Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena activists blackened the face of Tamboli, who serves as a medical officer in a primary healthcare centre in Ahire.

Tamboli had alleged conducted an abortion on a teacher for killing a female foetus on December 1, 2011. A resident of Shirwal town, the woman who already had two girls, had conducted sex determination test in a hospital in Kolhapur. The Kolhapur hospital is under the scanner of the administration.

The case was exposed after police detained Kolhapur-based agent Nikhil Chavan on Wednesday following a sting operation carried out by Satara-based feminist lawyer Varsha Deshpande using a pregnant woman as decoy.

The teacher and her husband had contacted Nikhil through another agent Shashikant Mohite of Khandala.

After Nikhil’s statement, four doctors and an agent Rajaram Patil were nabbed in Kolhapur.

In the Kolhapur case, two doctors MBBS Santosh More, BAMS Dr Dnayndev Dalvi were detained for allegedly violating the Pre Natal and Pre Conception Diagnostic Techniques Act.

Another doctor couple, Mahindra Kanade and his wife, gynaecologist Vaishali were arrested for illegal medical termination of pregnancy, as they were caught red-handed carrying out abortions without licences under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.