How cop posing as pregnant woman busted sex determination racket involving ex-IMA president
Dr Swati Pawar, health superintendent at Rural Hospital at Loni in Ahilyanagar, lodged the first information report (FIR) in this case at Loni police station, on April 30, 2025.
To verify, police asked a pregnant woman living in Haryana to act as a decoy and sent her to the clinic, where she met one of the suspects who told her the procedure for the sex determination would cost Rs 35,000.
(Representational image/File) Ahilyanagar district police busted a major prenatal sex determination racket and arrested 12 persons in this case, including Dr Ravindra Kute, the former state president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Thursday.
Dr Swati Pawar, health superintendent at Rural Hospital at Loni in Ahilyanagar, lodged the first information report (FIR) in this case at Loni police station, on April 30, 2025.
After receiving information that sex determination tests were being conducted for Rs 10,000 at a room near Nilwande canal in Pimpri Nirmal in Rahata taluka of Ahilyanagar, a woman police constable Manisha Giri went to the spot as a decoy customer on April 29.
Posing as a pregnant woman, she paid Rs 10,000 to racketeers at the spot for her prenatal sex determination test. She then gave a missed call to her senior, Yuvraj Athare, assistant police inspector of Loni police station, as a signal of the crime’s confirmation.
A police team along with Dr Swati Pawar and other government officials raided the spot around 9 pm. Police arrested a doctor, Rahul Abasaheb Bhanage (34) of Newasa in Ahilyanagar, for allegedly conducting sex determination tests. Police also arrested a local resident Akash Ramrao Nawale (30) and an agent Abhijit Dilip Bhusal (30) of Shikharwadi in Beed district, at the spot.
During the raid, police found eight pregnant women who had paid money for their sex determination tests. Husbands of seven women were placed under arrest, while the eighth one managed to escape, police said.
All accused were booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita section 223 and sections of the Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act and the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act 1994.
Police seized a portable sonography machine, monitors, battery-operated power supply system, ultrasound gel, three cars, cell phones, some money and other material, all worth Rs 24.09 lakhs, from the illegal sex determination centre.
Police said the agents collected money from pregnant women and then secretly took them to the doctors for foetal sex determination tests.
Additional Superintendent of Police Somnath Waghchoure, who led the operation said, “Probe revealed that after
illegal sex determination tests, some pregnant women bearing girl child underwent abortions at Dr Kute’s hospital in Shrirampur (in Ahilyanagar district). Kute was then arrested with two more agents identified as Pradip Bhausaheb Dhage (32) and Nilesh Bhavar (42), on May 7…”
“So far we have arrested 12 persons and search is on for three more. The accused did not maintain any records of the women who approached them for illegal sex determination tests. But so far we have got names of about 70 such women, including some who also performed their abortions. Statements of a few women have been recorded,” said Waghmare.
He added, “Accused Dr Bhanage is known to be conducting the illegal sex determination tests for the last few months, but Dr Kute is found to be involved in the racket for a long time. We are investigating his role further.”
Police said Dr Kute is a well known surgeon, operating a hospital in Shrirampur town in Ahilyanagar for the last several years.
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