Doctor at private clinic among three booked for abortions

GURUGRAM: The district pre-conception and pre-natal diagnostic techniques (PCPNDT) team got into the action after a slump of almost five months and booked three doctors for running an illegal abortion racket from Greenwood Health Centre in Sector 45 on Thursday. One of them was caught red-handed by using a decoy patient and marked currency of Rs 40,000 was recovered from her.

According to officials, chief medical officer (CMO) Dr BK Rajora had received information that one Dr Ravi was conducting illegal abortions. A decoy contacted Dr Ravi and told him that his wife was over four months pregnant with a girl. A deal was struck to terminate the pregnancy for Rs 40,000. Ravi asked the decoy to meet Dr Abha Bansal in the Sector 45 clinic. On Thursday, the decoy couple reached the hospital at around 2.30pm and the PCPNDT team tailed them. Dr Abha conducted an ultrasound and confirmed that the pregnancy was of four-five months. She had already set up equipment to conduct the abortion when officials raided the clinic.

The clinic did not maintain any records of the abortions, which is mandatory under the medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971. Dr Abha also did not have the licence to conduct such procedures. The licence in the clinic was in the name of Dr Priyanka Bansal and it was valid for up to 12 weeks. The PCPNDT team also recovered MTP kits from the spot, which were obtained by the clinic in 2014 and some were found to have been used.

Dr BK Rajora said, “Dr Abha coordinated over the phone with the decoy and arranged the meeting at the clinic. Her husband Dr Anil Bansal had been arrested for conducting sex determination tests in September 2016.”

Amandeep Chauhan, drug control officer, Gurugram, said, “An FIR has been registered against Dr Abha Bansal, Dr Anil Bansal and Dr Ravi under sections 3,4 and 5 of the MTP Act, 1971, section 120b (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC, sections 27 and 28 of the drugs and cosmetics Act, 1940, at the Sector 40 police station. The accused were running a ring.”

Earlier, TOI reported that the district’s sex ratio at birth (SRB) fell this year, after rising steadily in recent years. Officials had blamed the dip to frequent changes in the core team that conducts PCPNDT raids, due to which the number of raids fell this year.