Four held for running sex-determination racket in Gurugram

GURUGRAM: Four persons were arrested for allegedly running an interstate prenatal sex determination racket after a joint team of officials from the directorate of health and family welfare, Punjab, and district health department officials, Gurugram, conducted a raid at Rajiv Chowk Saturday late night. The officials recovered medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) kits, two vials of banned injections and four syringes from a car belonging to one of the accused.

The police said the accused, identified as Satish, Devender, Nitin and Gopal Krishnan, were booked under relevant sections of the PCPNDT Act, 1994.

Dr Amandeep Chauhan, district drug control officer, said accused Satish and Devender were repeat offenders and had been booked in June for allegedly conducting illegal sex determination tests. “Both quacks procure MTP kits from a hospital in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, and do prenatal sex determination in Punjab and Haryana,” he said.

A joint team comprising Dr Raju Dhir, assistant director, directorate of health and family welfare, Punjab, Dr Jaswant Singh, senior medical officer in-charge, Sherpur (Sangrur), and Ramesh Dutt, director, speed, search and security network private limited, Punjab, Dr Nawal Kishore, nodal officer, PC-PNDT, Gurugram, and Amandeep Chauhan, drugs control officer, Gurugram, was formed to conduct the raid that was done based on specific inputs.

The team enlisted a decoy patient in Ahmedgarh, Sangrur, and arrived in the city at 6pm. One of the accused, acting as an agent, had asked to meet at the bus stand with ₹35,000. The team from Punjab handed over the money in numbered currency notes at the bus stand.

“The joint team then met the other accused at Manesar and came with them to Rajiv Chowk, where they were arrested by the police,” Chauhan said.

Shivaji Nagar station house officer Narender said the accused were arrested and were taken in police custody.