Sex determination racket busted, 3 held in Batala
A team of health department from Chandigarh on Monday evening raided a private hospital at Batala and arrested three persons, including the hospital manger for violating the clause of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PNDT).
The team also seized three ultrasound machines, used to conduct sex determination test, from the hospital
Talking to media persons, MD, Speed Network, Ramesh Dutt said that the state government had hired his company to keep a tab on the misuse of ultrasound machines.
”During investigation,it came to the fore that a private hospital of Batala was conducting sex determination tests and charging ₹ 25000 to ₹35000 from people,” he said.
Following this information, they constituted a team of health department which included Dr Rajesh Bhaskar from state health department, Dr Kishan Chand, civil surgeon, Gurdaspur and Dr Sanjeev Bhalla, senior medical officer, civil hospital, Batala.
The officials sent an undercover agent, who told the mediator, Nirmila Devi that she wants to known about the sex of the baby.The deal was struck at ₹22,000 and on Monday evening, Nirmila Devi called the decoy to Batala hospital at Dera Baba Nanak road, where she handed ₹22,000 to hospital in-charge, Surinder Pal.
As Surinder Pal was conducting the ultrasound on the woman, the team raided at hospital and arrested him . During investigation, the team found that Pal used to pretend as a doctor and was conducting the tests illegally.
“We have seized all the three ultrasound machines to ascertain how many tests were carried on through these machines” added Dutt.
Meanwhile, the police had registered a case under Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 23 of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994. The police also arrested Pal’s assistant Hari Om and mediator Nirmila Devi.
THE TEAM ALSO SEIZED THREE ULTRASOUND MACHINES, USED TO CONDUCT SEX DETERMINATION TEST, FROM THE HOSPITAL