Doc caught conducting gender test

Decoy patient sent to pvt clinic, its premises raided

The Delhi Health Department on Monday clamped down on a clinic here that was illegally conducting sex determination tests for Rs 10,000.

A paediatrician was caught red-handed conducting sex determination tests at Bal Kishan Hospital in Khanpur Extension, south Delhi. The clinic is registered under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques (PCPDNT) Act.

With the hospital located near Badarpur border, there was cross-border cases of sex determination and sex-selective abortions, according to the raiding team members, which also comprised a team of doctors from Haryana.

The doctor was found charging Rs 10,000 for conducting ultrasonography tests on pregnant women. At the time of the raid, there were three pregnant women at the site.

“A decoy patient was brought by the Haryana doctors and the doctor agreed to conduct sex determination tests. Women from across the border also come here to avoid being caught in their state. The doctor is not a registered radiologist and cannot conduct ultrasonography tests,” said Dr Shalley Kamra, state programme officer (SPO), Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, state health department.

This broadly points towards sex selective abortion as the clinic was found flouting several rules. There was no form being filled by the patients, no record of cash receipts and no ultrasound reports of the tests conducted, all in violation of the PCPNDT Act.

The patients were taken in isolation and the tests were conducted, according to another team member. No other family member was allowed at the hospital, said the member.

“The doctor has confessed to the crime. Two touts were present at the spot whose statements have been recorded as well. They helped in getting women for the sex selective tests from Haryana as well,” said Dr Kamra.

The Health Department had recently raided Vinayak Hospital in Sultanpuri, which was found conducting sex-selective abortion on a woman beyond her third month of pregnancy. The clinic was not a registered centre to conduct medical termination of pregnancies (MTPs).

Health Minister Satyendra Jain had recently said that raids would be intensified and those who tip-off the department with information related to female foeticide would be rewarded.