A random vehicle check by the Byappanahalli police has led them to crack a prenatal sex determination racket operating in the city. The police have arrested four people who are part of the racket and efforts are on to arrest a city-based doctor who is likely the kingpin of the ring.
It was around midnight on Sunday when PSI Manjunath and his team conducting a random vehicle check on Old Madras Road noticed an SUV zoom past the checkpoint without slowing down. Suspecting something fishy, Mr. Manjunath along with his team gave a hot chase on bikes and intercepted the vehicle near NGEF signal.
A detailed questioning led the police to detain Shivalinge Gowda and Nayan Kumar who were ferrying a pregnant woman. The police questioned the woman and learnt that they were returning from a lab after a sex determination scan.
A detailed questioning led the police to arrest their two more associates, identified as Naveen Kumar and Veeresh. Investigations revealed that the accused were running the racket for several years at the behest of Veeresh’s uncle, who is a doctor in the city operating a clinic on Old Madras Road. The accused were working as agents to ferry pregnant women to a scanning centre in Mandya to get the test done and bring them back with the result. Based on their consent, the doctor would also help terminate the pregnancy if it was a female foetus, a police officer said.
The police said the racket also extended to Mysuru and Mandya. The accused would charge lakhs of rupees for sex determination and termination procedure.
The accused have been booked under the Pre-conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, and also under section 511 (Punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) and section 312 (Causing miscarriage) of the IPC.
