Crackdown looms for sex-test clinics

AHMEDABAD: Dr Hemang Shah and agent Ashok Patel of Umiya Nursing Home in Naroda who were arrested after being caught red-handed carrying out a sex determination test last week are learnt to have sung like canaries in police custody. Officials said that a list of 20 doctors and agents who are involved in illegal sex determination in the city has been made following the leads given by Shah and Patel.
In fact, officials are looking forward to extracting more information after Shah was remanded in police custody for six more days by the metropolitan court on Saturday. Patel has been sent to judicial custody.
"Shah has been remanded in police custody for six more days. We will further investigate the case so as to know the modus operandi of the duo and how they used to get the patients by keeping everything undercover. During Patel's questioning, he revealed that more than 20 doctors were regularly coming to his nursing home to carry out sonography tests. We have forwarded these names to the district health officials for further crackdown,'' police inspector Chetna Chaudhary of Mahila Police Station.
Ahmedabad district collector Vijay Nehra said that doctors conducting sex determination tests in the district could face serious trouble as the machinery will step up decoy operations following the leads given by the doctor-agent duo. Doctors carrying out abortions following sex determination will also face heat.
Shah and Patel were caught red-handed telling the sex of a foetus to a pregnant woman sent as a decoy. The doctor had told that the sex of the child was male by charging Rs 9,000.
It has been revealed in the investigations that doctors and the agent who was also owner of the nursing home used to split this fee 50:50.
"This is for the first time that those found guilty of violating the Pre Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC & PNDT) Act were remanded in police custody and were grilled properly. People indulging in sex determination tests will face serious consequences henceforth," said Nehra.
Times View
The authorities should ensure that a foolproof case is made out against doctors who continue to offer sex-determination tests, which lead to female foeticide. The conviction rate in such cases is still abysmally low. This is one reason why this heinous crime is still being committed.