Beed female foeticide case: Court grants bail to woman doctor

A local court on Tuesday granted bail to Dr Saraswati Munde, who has been charge sheeted along with her husband Dr Sudam Munde and 15 others in a female foeticide case.

District sessions court judge ST Mahajan granted her bail on a surety of Rs 3 lakh and certain conditions.

The dourt has warned her not to pressurise any witnesses in the case and refrain from carrying out medical practice until the case is solved. The court has also asked her to remain present at police station every alternate day. Dr Munde was given bail on the ground that she has spent 105 days in jail and was no longer required in custody. Public prosecutor Ashok Kulkarni told PTI that they would appeal in the Bombay High Court against the bail. According to sources, she would, however, continue to remain in jail in connection with the illegal sex determination case of 2010. The doctor couple is currently lodged in Nashik district jail.

The couple is accused of carrying out an abortion on sugarcane worker Vijaymala Patekar, who was in her second trimester, at their hospital in Parli in Beed district on May 18 this year, which resulted in her death.

On May 19, the couple had secured bail from Parli court and went into hiding from May 23. The couple, absconding for over three weeks, had finally surrendered to the local police on June 17.

Others, who have been charge sheeted in the case, include the doctor couple's son Venkatesh, Jalgaon-based Dr Rahul Kolhe, husband of the deceased woman Mahadev Patekar and members of the hospital staff.

Maharashtra government has appointed Ujwal Nikam as special public prosecutor to represent the case.