Mumbai: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has started a parallel inquiry against two Solapur doctors arrested for allegedly carrying out sex-selective abortions. Dr. Tejas Gandhi and his wife Priya were arrested last week from Siya Hospital in Akluj on suspicion that they had carried out as many as 36 illegal terminations of pregnancies.
The IMA’s Maharashtra branch has served a show cause notice to the doctor couple, and have asked members from its Akluj branch in Solapur to conduct a thorough inquiry into the matter. Dr. Jayesh Lele, member, IMA, said, “We have a zero-tolerance policy in such cases. The IMA has been at the forefront in opposing such misconduct for a long time, so there will be no support for the doctors whatsoever. We can’t comment on this say case as it is yet to be proved, but we are in complete support of action against errant doctors, if any.” He said this is the first instance of IMA members being named in a case of sex-selective abortion.
The matter was exposed by activist Varsha Deshpande and her team, after they came to know that a woman from Wai has undergone an illegal abortion allegedly by the doctor couple. According to Ms. Deshpande, the couple from Wai had first terminated a pregnancy in 2016 after coming to know it was a girl. This year, they terminated a second pregnancy at the same nursing home. The police also found a sonography machine suspected to have been used to determine the foetus’ gender. “In the past few years, 100 people have been convicted. Of these, 18 were cases initiated by me,” Ms Deshpande said.
Among prominent cases reported in the recent past is the arrest in March of Sangli-based homoeopath Dr. Babasaheb Khidrapure after 19 foetuses were found dumped near his hospital. The sex selection racket had come to light following the death of a 26-year-old woman in an abortion gone wrong.
In September 2010, Beed-based doctor couple Sudam and Saraswati Munde were busted in a sting operation that revealed they were carrying out sex selective abortions. Ms. Deshpande had found that Dr. Munde would feed the aborted foetuses to his dogs.
In 2011, the State government launched the ‘Save Girl Child’ campaign to curb sex determination. Sonography centres and gynaecology clinics were put on radar and health officials began carrying out several raids on such set up’s. The stringent implementation of the Pre Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act did lead to a scare amongst those who were violating the norms. But it also pushed many wrong doers to become extra-cautious. “That is the main reason why our sting operations have worked the best. We send decoy pregnant patients and these doctors are caught easily,”said Ms Deshpande who feels that the State has to focus on such initiatives.
