The District Medical and Health authorities have seized three private hospitals in the town for allegedly conducting sex determination tests and illegal abortions, perpetrating female foeticide.
The action comes in the backdrop of the unabated sex determination tests by the ultrasound scan centres attached to some errant private hospitals here in brazen violation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT), 2014.
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Decoy operation
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In a meticulously planned operation, the medical and health officials in association with the local police deputed “decoy patients” to three private hospitals and busted the sex determination racket involving unqualified ultrasound scan technicians and touts. The decoy operation has exposed that the staff of the three errant private hospitals were not only revealing the gender of the foetus through sex selection diagnosis but also resorting to illegal abortions amounting to brutal killing of female foetuses.
The authorities led by the District Medical and Health Officer Dr Kondala Rao seized as many as three private hospitals here on Tuesday.
The Khammam two-town police have arrested three persons belonging to the errant private hospitals under the PCPNDT Act, Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, and Section 420 and other relevant sections of the IPC.
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Three arrested
Khammam Police Commissioner Tafseer Iqbal told reporters at a press conference here on Tuesday that Sheik Gaffar, head compounder of Meenakshi super-specialty hospital, S Ashok, Manager of Sri Sri Hospital, Arvapalli Srinivas Rao, owner of a medical shop, were arrested on charges of conducting sex determination tests.
He warned that stringent action would be taken against those indulging in sex determination tests and female foeticide.