Sangli abortion racket: Two more arrests take total to 9

The racket was busted in Mhaisal village last week

Pune: The Sangli police has arrested two more persons in connection with the Mhaisal illicit abortion racket, taking the number of those arrested to nine.

The racket, allegedly run by a fake homeopath, Dr. Babasaheb Khidrapure, was busted last week by the police. The two arrested, identified as Yaseen Tehsildar and Satgonda Patil, are believed to be the agents who ferried pregnant women to the arrested doctor. They were picked up from Karnataka and Shirol Taluk in Kolhapur district.

The racket was busted in Mhaisal village on March 5 after 19 aborted female foetuses were discovered in a sewer next to Khidrapure’s private clinic.

The death of a 26-year-old lady, Swati Jamdade, who died during a botched termination of her pregnancy on March 3, blew the lid off the crime.

The police have invoked the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act against the accused, including Khidrapure (prime suspect), homeopath Shrihari Ghodke, doctor Ramesh Devagirikar, pharmacist Sunil Khedkar, Khidrapure’s help Kanchan Roje, compounder Umesh Salunkhe, and Praveen Jamdade, husband of the deceased woman.

Devagirikar and Khedkar were remanded to police custody till March 14 by a local court on Thursday. According to Dattatrey Shinde, Sangli Superintendent of Police, the cops are quizzing Khidrapure’s wife to ascertain his modus operandi.

Mr. Shinde said, “We believe the three arrested doctors, including Khidrapure, were a giving a cut to the agents for securing patients.” Police teams are combing Belgaum and Bijapur in the neighbouring State Karnataka, and parts of Sangli and Kolhapur district, in search of more suspects.

Khidrapure, who had set up his clinic nearly a decade ago, is believed to have been performing illegal abortions since 2008. A local court in Miraj has remanded him to police custody till March 17.

Besides being charged under the MTP and the Bombay Nursing Home Act, he has been charged under sections 314 (death caused by act done with intent to cause miscarriage), 315 (act done with intent to prevent child being born alive), 420 (cheating) and 204 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code and the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994, among others.