Beed: Five more persons have been arrested in connection with the death of a 30-year-old woman during an abortion at a hospital run here by a doctor couple.
The five -- Datta Kalyan Kakde, Noorjahan Sayyad Anwar, Sugrami Shaikh Rahim, Gangadhar Gutte and Aangad Kendre -- were held yesterday for assisting the doctor duo Sudam Munde and wife Saraswati in the crime, police said today.
The couple, who surrendered before the police on Sunday, have been remanded to police custody till June 30 by a local court. Both were booked after a sugarcane worker Vijaymala Patekar who was in her second trimester died allegedly following abortion at their hospital on May 18.
Earlier, on May 19, the couple had secured bail from Parli court and went into hiding from May 23. On June 3, the court had declared the couple as "absconding".
Kakde, a resident of Murshadpur village of Ashti tehsil was apprehended after the couple used his jeep to go into hiding with the help of driver Parmeshwar Ankushe and Sanjay Soni, the owner of the medical store at Munde hospital.
Both Ankushe and Soni are on the run and searches have been launched to nab them, police said.
While arrested accused Gutte, helped the Mundes to take the pregnant women for sonography to a Jalgaon hospital (run by arrested accused Dr. Rahul Kolhe) for sonography in his Tata vehicle, the other two --Anwar and Rahim-- have been accused of assisting the doctor couple in disposal of female foetuses following abortions at the Munde hospital, they said.
Earlier this week, two sonography machines were seized by Parli police from Kolhe`s clinic, police added.
All the arrested five will be produced in court later in the day.
In all, nine persons including Dr Kolhe and Munde hospital compounder Anil Munde have been arrested in the case so far.
PTI
