They ferried pregnant women for Rs 35,000 illegal sex tests. One decoy brought the racket down

Hasanpur Station House Officer, Rajesh Kumar Tiwari, said six people were detained when the racket was busted, including three pregnant women. As the offences invoked are bailable, they were released after being served notices requiring them to join the investigation, he said.

A total of 13 people have been booked, including the anganwadi worker in Amroha and a doctor in Haryana.

The bust

According to Amroha Police, the investigation began last week after Haryana Police received a tip about the Sonipat clinic.

To verify this, police asked a pregnant woman living in Haryana to act as a decoy and sent her to the clinic on May 26. There, police said, she met one of the suspects and said she wanted to undergo a sex-determination test. She was told the procedure would cost Rs 35,000.

After the decoy ‘agreed’, police said the suspect instructed her to bring the money and come to a junction in Sonipat the next morning. To protect her identity, the decoy provided the accused a number supplied by the police instead of her own.

On Wednesday morning, police teams escorted the decoy to the meeting point and kept watch from a distance. A man, later identified as Ravinder Singh, arrived and instructed the decoy to have her driver follow his car.

After travelling some distance, he allegedly asked her to switch cars. Inside were three other pregnant women, police said. Investigators alleged Ravinder collected the money before driving towards Amroha.

As they tracked the vehicle, Haryana Police alerted their counterparts in Amroha.

Police said midway, the vehicle stopped near a roadside dhaba, where another suspect, Vipin, was waiting on a motorcycle.

Police said Vipin took two pregnant women away and later brought them back — allegedly after the test. He then took the decoy and another woman to a second location believed to be operating as a covert testing site.

Teams from both states followed Vipin to Satera village, where they intercepted him at a house. Inside, police said they found Devender, a resident of Amroha, allegedly operating the ultrasound machine.

Police said Devender tried to flee, dumping the machine, but was caught..

A preliminary inquiry revealed that the house from which the alleged operation was being conducted belonged to the anganwadi worker, Sudha, and her role in the racket is being probed.

Police picked up the pregnant women as well as Devender, Vipin and Ravinder.

Based on a complaint filed by Dr Dhruvendra Singh, a medical officer posted in a community health centre in Amroha, a case has been registered at Hasanpur police station under BNS sections 318 (cheating), 319 (cheating by personation) and sections of the Pre-conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques (PC & PNDT) Act, 1994.

Police said a key focus of the investigation will be tracing how the accused came into possession of the ultrasound machine, which was damaged during Devender’s escape attempt.

Police said such machines can legally be sold only by authorised manufacturers, companies or dealers to duly registered medical practitioners or diagnostic centres.

The 13 accused, their roles

– Ravinder Singh from Haryana: Police said he brought women to UP in a car

– Vipin Kumar from Amroha: He allegedly took the women to the house where the test was done.

– Devender from Amroha: He allegedly operated the ultrasound machine

– The three pregnant women who allegedly came for the test and their husbands

– A doctor from Haryana: Police said she is the person the decoy allegedly met at the Sonipat clinic.

-Sudha, an anganwadi worker, and her husband Amar Singh

-Prakash and Gaurav, who allegedly acted as intermediaries, connecting the pregnant women with the other accused in the racket.