‘Cattle grazer did illegal abortions’

VELLORE: The health department inquiry into the death of Sumathi, a 35-year-old pregnant woman, at Kastampadi in Tiruvannamalai district after an a botched

abortion

revealed that a cattle grazer arrested for the death had been performing abortions illegally for a long time.

Sources in the health department said an investigation had found that Jayalakshmi, 40, of Kastampadi village had been practising traditional medicine and carrying out abortions illegally, on new moon days.

A senior health department official said, “Neighbours of Jayalakshmi told us that women visited her house during ‘amavasai’, spending the night there.”

Sumathi’s death seems to vindicate the charges of the locals. “Jayalakshmi carried out an abortion on Sumathi on February 15. She was six months pregnant then,” said the official.

On February 15, Sumathi borrowed ₹2,000 from her mother and went to Jayalakshmi’s house for the ‘opeartion’. “The relatives of Sumathi were not aware about her pregnancy until her death,” said joint director (in-charge) of health and family welfare (Tiruvannamalai) Dr D Pandian.

The cause of death, according to the postmortem report, was “shock and haemorrhage”. The doctor who performed the autopsy found the placenta intact in the uterus of the victim, said deputy director of health and family welfare Dr Navaneetha Dhanalakshmi, who conducted the inquiry.

She added that they were waiting for the viscera report. The inquiry team submitted a preliminary report to the collector and officials at the directorate of medical services (DMS).

On a complaint lodged by the village administrative officer of Kastampadi, Sasikumar, the police recovered Sumathi’s body and the dead fetus at Jayalakshmi’s house. “She had given Sumathi a herbal medicine and inserted a calotropis gigantean (Erukkam) stick to pluck out the fetus,” said a police officer.