Decoy pregnant woman, Rs 36,000-deal: How police busted sex-determination racket operating across Faridabad, Gurgaon
The accused, who have allegedly conducted over 1,000 fake tests, duped pregnant women by pretending to do an ultrasound, and always telling them they were carrying a girl child, officers added, giving details about the modus operandi.
How police busted sex determination racket across Faridabad, Gurgaon (Express Photo) A decoy pregnant woman, a Rs 36,000-deal faked to nab key operatives after a tip-off was received about a syndicate, and a team ready to strike: this is how a sex determination racket operating across Gurgaon, Faridabad, and Palwal was uncovered following a joint operation by health officials, officers told The Indian Express Tuesday.
The accused, who have allegedly conducted over 1,000 fake tests, duped pregnant women by pretending to do an ultrasound, and always telling them they were carrying a girl child, officers added, giving details about the modus operandi.
Officers from Haryana’s Health department and police teams exposed the network involving a tout, transporters, and a man who performed alleged procedures to disclose the sex of a foetus even as he was not qualified to conduct ultrasound tests, said police.
While an FIR has been registered, all key four accused in the case managed to flee the spot before the police arrived. Police said an operation has been launched to nab them.
According to the FIR, registered at the Kotwali police station in Faridabad, Gurgaon Deputy Civil Surgeon Dr Devender Solanki received a tip-off about a tout, who identified himself as Dr GK Pachori and ran Gautam Clinic at Asaoti in Palwal.
Pachori, according to the FIR, would allegedly bring pregnant women from Gurgaon to Faridabad to conduct the sex-determination tests, charging between Rs 35,000 and Rs 40,000 per patient.
To investigate the claims, the Gurgaon District Appropriate Authority formed a team comprising nodal officers Dr Devender Singh Solanki and Dr Harish Kumar. The team arranged a pregnant woman, Seema, who contacted Pachori on Monday afternoon, eventually striking a deal for Rs 36,000 for the tests.
The decoy handed over the cash at Gautam Clinic. Then, Pachori took her in an auto-rickshaw to the Bata Chowk flyover in Faridabad, said officers.
Pachori subsequently handed the decoy over to two accused, identified as Anjali and Vishnu. The duo drove the decoy to Leelawati Hospital in NIT Faridabad, where another accused, identified as Om Prakash, conducted an ultrasound test and informed her that she was carrying a “female” child.
After she was dropped back at the flyover, the woman alerted the trailing health team. The team raided Leelawati Hospital and recovered Rs 20,000 from Om Prakash’s pocket, with the serial numbers matching the marked currency initially provided to the decoy.
Upon questioning, Om Prakash allegedly told the team that he was only a Class 12 pass out and had been working with Pachori for three years to conduct these illegal tests.
He further disclosed that Anjali and Vishnu were exclusively tasked with picking up and dropping off the pregnant women.
Officers said a local Faridabad Health department team, including complainant and senior medical officer Dr Rajesh Solanki, subsequently joined the raid and seized a BPL ultrasound instrument and the OPD register.
However, while the documentation was underway, Om Prakash and Vishnu managed to flee the premises by taking advantage of a crowd that had gathered, allegedly with the help of Om Prakash’s brother, Satish.
The police have registered an FIR against Pachori, Om Prakash, Anjali, and Vishnu under various provisions of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, and sections 318(4) [cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property] and 61(2) [criminal conspiracy] of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), as well as Section 34 of the National Medical Commission Act [penalty for practicing as a medical practitioner without valid registration].
Kotwali Police Station House Officer Inspector Shri Bhagwan said that all the accused fled before the police team was formally informed, but they will be nabbed soon.
“The hospital where the raid happened was set up around four years ago. From what he had told our decoy, the tout had done at least 1,000 sex determination tests, so if we multiply that by at least 30,000, it totals Rs 3 crore … He would always tell them it is a female foetus and then likely help arrange abortions (medical termination of pregnancy) for a fee,” Dr Solanki said.
He added, “They would also pretend to do an ultrasound. What they used (which we have seized) is actually a fetal doppler (used to detect heartbeats) that he pretended to scan over the body of the decoy and previous patients.”
The raid in Faridabad comes days after another sex determination racket was busted in Gurgaon, where authorities arrested consultant radiologist, Dr. Manjit Kumar, at Aayu Hospital on Khandsa Road.
Dr Solanki added that Dr Manjit’s bail was denied on Friday by a Gurgaon court, and they have moved an application for getting his medical registers from the last two years to uncover the scale of his illegal operation.
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