A special team of the Dharmapuri Police raided a scan centre at Tirupattur town in Vellore district on Wednesday and arrested M. Vedi (32), manager of the centre, on charges of revealing the gender of a foetus to a couple.
The raid followed the arrest on Sunday of a quack, N. Renuka, in Papparapatti town in Dharmapuri district on the charges of female foeticide. M. Vanitha of Papparapatti had her female foetus aborted by Renuka after she underwent scan at the centre.
Investigations revealed a nexus between the scan centre and the quack in identifying the sex of the foetus, which was followed by aborting female foetuses.
The special team, led by Inspector C.M. Ratnakumar, raided the centre in Tirupattur on the basis of a lead given by N. Renuka.
Owner of the scan centre G. Sukumar of Sama Nagar in Tirupattur and his cousin Usha, a doctor, were absconding. Superintendent of Police Asra Garg said efforts were on to find them.
The district police have launched a crackdown on scan centres that revealed the gender of the foetus in violation of rules. Dharmapuri has a history of female foeticide and infanticide.
The racket had been on for more than a decade in Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Salem, Thiruvannamalai and Vellore districts.
Investigations also revealed that quacks watched the expression on the faces of couples emerging from the scan centres.
Upon confirming that a couple was going to have a girl child and that they did not want to have one, the quacks persuaded them to go in for abortion. Renuka, who had been in school only up to Class X, was allegedly involved in illegal abortions for over a decade.
It was said that during questioning she provided information on many scan centres illegally involved in sex determination scan of foetus.
Vedi was produced before the Pennagaram Judicial Magistrate, who remanded him in judicial custody. He was later lodged at Salem central prison.
Superintendent of Police Asra Garg told The Hindu that the crackdown would continue.
Dharmapuri police would also write to the Health Department to tighten the monitoring of scan centres.
