Hospital terminates doctor over sex determination test

NEW DELHI: A day after a 60-yearold doctor and his 44-year-old woman assistant were arrested for allegedly conducting a prenatal sex determination test at his chamber in Jeewan Hospital Gate Number 2, the hospital authorities Friday issued a press statement, saying they had terminated the services of the doctor with immediate effect.

The hospital administration, in its statement, clarified that the arrested doctor, Dr Manoj K Ahuja, was a part-time ultrasonologist and used to visit the hospital for a few hours every day. “He had a separate chamber. Any illegal activity carried out by him is/was not in the knowledge of the hospital authorities. It was a matter of utter shock to find out about his illegal actions. The money was recovered from his bag kept in his car, not from the hospital premises. We will cooperate with the authorities for any further investigation if needed,” read the press statement.

Ahuja and Kavita were caught red-handed on Wednesday at the hospital by a joint team of pre- conception pre-natal diagnostic technique (PCPNDT) cell of Haryana and Delhi’s health departments following information that they were running the illegal sex determination racket for the last four months.

The raiding party had sent a pregnant woman from Haryana’s Sonepat to Kavita as a decoy with ₹30,000 marked banknotes. “Kavita took ₹14,000 from her and brought her to the hospital to determine the sex of the child. Dr Ahuja agreed to perform the test and received ₹12,000 from the decoy customer. The two were caught redhanded, Vinod Kumar Yadav, sub-divisional magistrate of Defence Colony had said on Thursday.

Three ultrasound machines, R12,000 that the doctor took from a decoy customer, US $76,101, £50, ₹20.79 lakh, ₹18,500 in old Indian currency notes and an envelope containing ₹1.32 lakh were seized from the doctor. Kavita was also caught in possession of the ₹14,000 that she had taken from the decoy customer.

Police said they have informed the income-tax department about the recovery of the currency notes.