Doc couple jailed for abortion had fed foetuses to dogs

An anti-abortion NGO has claimed that a doctor couple who ran an abortion clinic in Marathwada town of Beed had conducted close to a lakh illegal surgeries and fed the foetuses to dogs. 

Lek Ladki Abhiyan, the NGO that exposed the doctors’ activities in 2010, claimed that Dr Sudam Munde and Dr Sarawati Munde –who were given six years prison term for a 2010 illegal abortion case— also dumped the foetuses in a nearby well. 

Dr Sudam, an MS (Surgeon), and Dr Sarawati, an MD (gynaecology), were convicted in three cases of Pre-conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection Act) registered in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Varsha Deshpande from Lek Ladki Abhiyan claimed that Dr Munde had boasted about conducting abortions and feeding the foetuses to five of his dogs during a sting operation by her NGO in 2010. 

Lawyer-activist Prerana Bhilare, pregnant at that time, and her escort Shailaja Jadhav participated in the sting operation. 

Judicial Magistrate First Class Laxmikant Pache has sentenced the couple for six years imprisonment. 

“They have never been out of bail since 2012….the effective sentence in this case would be around four years,” Deshpande told Deccan Herald.

She alleged that the Mundes in the last 25 years could have easily carried out close to 90,000 to one lakh abortions. “They used to see 90 patients daily and conduct around 25 operations. People from across Maharashtra used to visit them for abortions,” she said. 

“They had four dogs in the hospital complex....15 in their field and also they used to dump aborted foetuses in wells,” she said, adding that her NGO had requested the CID to dig the wells.

The 2012 case against the doctor couple concerns the death of a woman due to bleeding during an abortion and the 2013 case was on recovery of foetuses in the hospital’s vicinity. 

“These two cases are still pending....the courts have taken it seriously and (the doctors) have not been able to secure bail,” Deshpande said.

Maharashtra’s declining sex ratio of 883 females for 1,000 males came to light in Census 2011. 

Besides being lower than the national average of 914, the figure was a far cry from the 913 the state boasted in 200.This indicates a decline of 30 girls for 100 boys in a decade. 

Not so surprisingly, Beed district showed a decline of 93 as the sex ratio fell to 801 female in 2011 as against 894 in 2001. 

Relentless campaigns by the Centre and the Maharashtra governments have brought some slight improvement in the situation.