BAMS doctor arrested for ‘carrying out’ illegal abortions

The incident came to light after a team of the health department, led by Deputy Civil Surgeon Saroj Aggarwal, conducted a surprise inspection at the clinic. A young unmarried woman was sent as a decoy, who pretended to be pregnant and requested the doctor to get her pregnancy terminated.

“She met the accused doctor, who agreed to get her MTP done, on a payment of Rs 5,000. We caught her red-handed while accepting the money. She is a BAMS doctor and unauthorised to carry out MTPs. There were two other women in the clinic, who had also come to get their MTP done. We are investigating the matter further,” said Aggarwal. The team also recovered medicines and MTP equipment from the clinic.

According to the police, the accused woman had been carrying out MTPs for over a decade. “She has been arrested and sent to judicial remand. A case under Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act was registered at Chandimandir police station,” said the investigating officer, ASI Janak Ram.

This is the second such arrest made by the police in the last one week. In a similar raid conducted along with the health department on February 1, a midwife was arrested from her house in Raipur Rani for allegedly carrying out MTPs. A case was registered at Raipur Rani police station.

The district administration had earlier announced that any person giving information regarding illegal abortion and sex determination anywhere in the district would be awarded with a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh. The identity of such persons would be kept confidential.