A team of the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services, Chennai nabbed a quack, who was running a scan centre in Velachery, and had revealed the sex of foetuses for at least 500 women over the last few years.
The team, led by joint director A. Viswanathan and comprising A. Thomas Prabhakar, deputy superintendent of police, DMS, M. Kamalakannan, superintendent of DMS and two others, nabbed the quack, Sivasankaran, aged about 55 years, on Monday.
Based on information from Tiruvannamalai officials, the team conducted an inquiry and had identified the centre nearly 10 days ago. On Monday, they sent a pregnant woman to the scan centre. “Sivasankaran took a scan and revealed the sex of the foetus to the woman. We immediately nabbed him and raided the centre. He confessed to being involved in sex determination of foetuses. We found the records of nearly 500 women at the centre,” an officer said.
Sivasankaran, who has qualified in MSc Botany, had been impersonating a doctor and had been running the scan centre for the last four years. The centre was earlier run by a doctor from whom he had learned how to perform scans and identify the sex of foetuses, he added.
The team lodged a complaint with the police and an FIR has been filed. The team also seized scan machines and documents as evidence and will also take action as per the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, the officer said.
