Cops identify agents in abortion racket

SANGLI: The Sangli police on Thursday claimed to have identified the agents who used to take pregnant women to the three arrested doctors, including homeopath Babasaheb Khidrapure, for sex determination tests as well as sex selective abortions.
Preliminary information obtained by police revealed that these doctors were paying anything between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 per patient as commission to these agents, assistant police inspector (API) Bharat Shinde of Moran (rural) police said.Besides Babasaheb Khidrapure (42), the other two homeopaths arrested in the last four days were Shrihari Krushna Ghodke (68) of Kagwad in Karnataka and Ramesh Venkatesh Devagikar (64) of Vijapur in the same state.
“We are connecting the dots and how they were operating. It is a racket that was operating on a good network of agents who were commuting between the two states. So far, we have obtained information on them and we will soon nab them,” said superintendent of Sangli police Dattatreya Shinde.
The SP said that police have identified some agents who were allegedly involved in the racket. “Their style of functioning will be studied once they are rounded up. Prima facie, we suspect that these doctors were paying them a commission.”
API Shinde said they have identified of one of the agents who took Praveen Jamdade (husband of the woman who died on March 1, after she was operated upon by Khidrapure) to Khidrapure. He said they have information about the agent’s whereabouts but refused to divulge details. “He (the agent) took Jamdade’s wife to the sonography center and then she to Khidrapure,” he added.