Doctor in Maharashtra arrested for abortion

Mumbai: Police on Sunday arrested a doctor and two members of his hospital’s staff a day after two female foetuses were recovered from the dry basin of Bindusara river in the Beed district in Maharashtra.

Police identified those arrested as Dr Shivaji Sanap, who owns Sanap Hospital where the alleged foeticides had taken place; Manisha Jawale and Mangal Dighe.

They have been booked under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT) and sections 304-A of Indian Penal Code (causing death by negligence).

One foetus was eight months and six days old while the other was five months old.

In a related development, police arrested a couple in Patoge Village, also in Beed district, after they allegedly admitted to having buried a foetus. The husband and wife were likewise booked under the PCPNDT.

Beed district, which had registered Maharashtra’s lowest sex ratio in the age group of 0-6 years in the 2011 census, has witnessed scores of foeticide cases over the years.

Fugitives

Recently, a 28-year-old housewife, Vijayamala Patekar, died while undergoing abortion in a clinic at Parli in Beed district.

Vijayamala, a mother of four girls, was six months pregnant.

She allegedly went to a clinic on May 18 to undergo abortion after she found out that she was pregnant with a girl. She died while undergoing abortion.

The police booked the owners of the clinic, identified as Dr Sudam Munde and his wife, Saraswati, under the PCPNDT and sections 304 A and 201 of the IPC (causing death by negligence, destroying evidence and providing false information).

The couple fled after posting bail.

Police said they have been on the look-out for the couple who reportedly conducted sex determination tests and abortions in their clinic.

Investigators are confirming speculation that Dr Munde used to feed his dogs with the aborted foetuses in an effort to destroy evidence.