Sangli racket: Doctor who conducted abortions held

Mumbai: A homeopathic doctor who allegedly conducted foeticides at his clinic in Sangli district of western Maharashtra was arrested from neighbouring Karnataka late last night, police said.

Babasaheb Khidrapure who runs Bharti Hospital at Mhaisal village in Sangli was arrested a day after 19 aborted foetuses were found alongside a road, within a walking distance from the hospital.

The doctor was absconding and nabbed by the Miraj police from Belgaum in Karnataka. Five teams were deployed for this task, police said.

"We have sent DNA samples of the 19 foetuses to the lab to ascertain their gender," Sangli SP Dattatray Shinde said.

According to the police, the horrific practice, which the doctor indulged in, came to light when a patient, Swati Praveen Jamdade (26), died on March 1 after a botched medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) on February 27. Her parents had then filed a case against her husband Praveen.

Jamdade was allegedly forced to abort her third female foetus after giving birth to two girls.

On the investigation trail, policemen found the 19 foetuses and busted the abortion racket.

They were found alongside the Miraj-Belgaum road in Mhaisal village, where Bharti Hospital is located.

While some of them were buried, others were thrown carelessly in blue plastic bags along with animal and sewage waste, police said.

Forty bags of skeletons, umbilical cords and other remains were also found and sent for tests, they said.

Bharti Hospital, where the abortions were taking place, was being run by Khidrapure. The hospital is around 7 km from the Karnataka border, and had two hidden basement rooms to terminate pregnancies in advanced stages.

At one end of the room is a fridge stocked with medicines used to induce abortion. On the other, there is an opening that led out of the building to a drain where blue plastic bags, half-destroyed medicine bottles, and charred bio-medical waste was found, police said.

Neither is the hospital registered under the Nursing Home Act, nor are the homoeopaths allowed to carry out MTP under the Medical Council of India (MCI) guidelines, they said.

Maharashtra Public Health Minister Deepak Sawant yesterday said the state government will work with the Karnataka government to put a stop to female foeticides.

He also said that a committee headed by Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sumit Malik has been set up to conduct an investigation into the matter and co-ordinate with various departments to curb such practices.

"We have also asked the Sangli District Medical officer and civil surgeon to file their reports on Mhaisal incident. Once the report comes, there will be appropriate action," Sawant had said.

Meanwhile, the foeticide issue also figured in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly today with Opposition members demanding the resignation of Health Minister Deepak Sawant and Women and Child Welfare Minister Pankaja Munde.

Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, NCP leaders Jayant Patil and Dilip Walse Patil said that the government must take moral responsibility for its failure to detect and prevent female foeticide in the state.

"Health Minister and Women and Child Welfare minister should resign owning moral responsibility in the case," Jayant Patil said.

Sawant told the House that the abortion racket was functioning since 2009.

"The women who used to come for abortion already had one or two daughters and were not keen on another girl child. The sonography reports of these women would be sent to Karnataka and after confirmation, the foeticide would be carried out in Sangli. The racket involves doctors, radiologists, sonographists, gynaecologists, general surgeons and anaesthetists from Satara, Sangli, Miraj and Kolhapur," he told the House.

Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said the incident was unfortunate and the government has taken a serious note of it. "The culprits would be punished severely," he said.

Sawant said investigation into the case is underway and he would be visiting Sangli tomorrow.

"I will make a detailed statement after coming back on Thursday," he said.

Earlier, as soon as the House assembled for the day, Vikhe Patil moved an adjournment notice seeking discussion on the Sangli issue but Speaker Haribhau Bagde rejected the demand.