Two held for running sex determination racket in Rajkot

A male nurse from Una in Gir Somnath and a woman from Rajkot city were arrested by the Rajkot Crime Branch Sunday after they were caught conducting a sex-determination procedure with the help of an unregistered medical ultrasound device.

The DCB booked the duo under PCPNDT Act on Sunday and arrested them formally. (Representational)

A MALE nurse from Una in Gir Somnath and a woman from Rajkot city were arrested by the Rajkot Crime Branch Sunday after they were caught conducting a sex-determination procedure with the help of an unregistered medical ultrasound device.

After getting a tip-off that Nayankumar Girnara (42) and Beena alias Meera Deda (32) were conducting illegal sex-determination tests of foetuses and even providing facility for illegal abortions, the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) of Rajkot laid a trap by asking a woman constable to pose as a customer and another woman constable to pose as her sister-in-law. The two constables went to a place on Sant Kabir Road as agreed with Girnara and Deda. However, while Girnara and Deda were doing sonography on the dummy customer, officers of DCB and Dr Jayeshkumar Vakani, medical officer of health (MoH) of Rajkot Municipal Corporation raided the premises.

After Girnara and Deda couldn’t produce any documents of registration of the ultrasound sonography (USG) machine nor of the place as is required under The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994, the duo were detained form the spot and their device was seized.

The DCB booked the duo under PCPNDT Act on Sunday and arrested them formally.

“Girnara holds a degree of Bachelor of Science (General Nursing and Midwifery). Neither of them are qualified to conduct UGS procedure on pregnant women nor was their USG device registered with the RMC as is required under the law. In fact, they were offering their services of conducting sex-determination tests at the place of customer’s choice and also used to perform illegal abortions,” Jayesh Dhola, police inspector of DCB said.

The PI said that Deda has studied till Class 12 only and prima facie, is a homemaker. “Girnara had procured the USG device from the UK and would conduct sonography procedure while Deda would scout customers and help the former in conducting the procedure to determine the sex of unborn child. We are investigating if she has any prior experience of working for any medical practitioner ,” said Dhola.

“As per primary information available, the duo were running their illegal business for the past 10 months and already conducted 21 procedures for determining sex of the foetus,” he added.

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