The Maharashtra Health department on Thursday sealed a clinic run by a doctor couple in Parli tehsil of Beed district. Authorities cracked down on the facility following a complaint over the death of a pregnant woman — the culmination of a series of shocking tales of abortion and illegal sex determination tests.
State Health Minister Suresh Shetty told The Hindu that the government had asked the Criminal Investigation Department to investigate the case involving Dr. Sudam Munde and his wife Dr. Saraswati Munde. The couple are absconding and the district superintendent has been asked to serve a notice to them to appear in court on Friday.
“I have spoken to the Home Minister. There are petitions pending against them. They are supposed to appear in the local court on May 25. We will engage a good lawyer,” Mr. Shetty said.
The activities of the Mundes were first brought to light when an organisation called Lek Ladaki Abhiyan carried out a sting operation in 2010 at the clinic and took the doctors to court.
“We lodged a complaint against Dr. Sudam Munde and Dr. Saraswati Munde. We gave all the evidence and recorded our statements with the authorities. They sealed all the machines, cancelled the registration of the centre under the PCPNDT Act and Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act immediately,” Varsha Deshpande from the organisation said.
The sting revealed a horrifying act — the doctors disposed of aborted foetuses by feeding them to dogs.
Shailaja Jadhav, who was part of the operation and whose statement was recorded by the divisional magistrate in September 2010, told The Hindu on the phone: “During the operation, Mr. Munde told a five-month pregnant woman, who was acting as our decoy, that there was no legal concern. He said they had dogs downstairs and they would eat the foetuses.”
“We were so shocked by this that we went down to check and we did find two dogs feeding on aborted foetuses. The whole scene was so revolting I could not sleep for two days. I have given my statement and I am ready to depose in open court,” Ms. Jadhav said.
Health Minister Mr. Shetty said this part had not been proved. However, a department official and an official from the local administration said the villagers had indeed made such claims.
Although the law might be catching up with the pair, action against them has come late in the day, say activists.
Ms. Deshpande said it took seven months for the authorities to file a case under the PCPNDT Act after the sting operation.
“There are cases against them under the MTP, the PCPNDT and one for negligence. They earlier registered cases under bailable offences. The prosecution did not challenge their bail plea and the prosecutor was absent from hearings. Now they are absconding and there is no evidence. We need papers and documents,” she alleged.
Mr. Shetty said the local authorities were “late by two days” in conducting their recent search. “That gives them enough time to remove [evidence].”
Without naming any party or politician, he hinted at “influential” connections of the doctor couple. “They are influential in the district. They have community support, so the local authorities dared not enter their place. They were even refusing to name them,” Mr. Shetty said.
Beed collector S.J. Koche refuted these allegations. “Whether to give bail or not is the court's discretion. The prosecutor attended the hearings. There is no pressure on the administration. I have not received a single call [intervening in the matter],” he told The Hindu .
Ms. Deshpande said a delegation from her organisation even met Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan who lent a sympathetic ear. “But if the government does not do anything we would be filing a petition seeking transfer of the cases outside Parli,” she said.
As for other violations, Health department officials said the facility had permission for only 10 beds, but was found operating with 114 beds. Plus, “it did not have the licence to carry out medical termination of pregnancy,” an official said.
District Civil Surgeon Gauri Rathod, who submitted a report to the Health Department recently, found 114 beds on a mezzanine floor, which was locked and had to be broken in. “We also found readymade prescriptions for drugs, which we suspect were summarily handed out to patients to terminate pregnancies.”
Throwing light on the doctors' modus operandi, Ms. Rathod told The Hindu: “They used a code on the prescription to disclose the sex of the child. We learnt that the number 19 – nine looks like the alphabet g – indicated ‘one girl' and the number 16 – six looks like the alphabet b – indicated ‘one boy.”
On a recent police complaint by a victim's family, the doctors have been charged under Sections 314 (death caused by act done with intent to cause miscarriage) and 316 (causing death of quick unborn child by act amounting to culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code.
Lowest sex ratio
Beed district, located in the backward region of Marathwada, has the lowest child sex ratio in the State of 801 girls to 1,000 boys, as per the 2011 Census. Last year, the Health Department sealed sonography machines and cancelled the licences of many clinics in Beed after nine female foetuses were found in a drain. In fact, Maharashtra itself, often touted as a progressive State, has been seeing a declining child sex ratio — at 883 girls to 1,000 boys, as per 2011 data, it is way below the national ratio of 940 girls.
