The Rachkonda police of Hyderabad have busted a sex determination racket at the Life Care Hospital at Uppal. The Managing Director, a radiologist and a doctor were arrested after the police conducted a decoy operation based on tip-offs.
On April 4, the Uppal police station received a tip-off that sex determination tests were allegedly being conducted illegally on pregnant women at the Life Care Hospital, near Gandhi statue at Uppal. The police sent a woman police constable who is six months pregnant to the hospital to meet with Dr Shravani for a sex determination test. The doctor charged her Rs 15,000 for the test.
The Managing Director of Life Care, Anjaneyulu, directed the woman constable to another doctor, Dr Raghava Reddy, who, after conducting the test, revealed the gender of the baby to the police officer under disguise.
According to the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Amendment Act, 2002, sex selection, before or after conception, is prohibited.
The Uppal police, along with the Deputy District Medical Health Officer of Medchal district and members of the SHE team of the Rachakonda police, arrested the doctors and the hospital owner. The police seized the amount (Rs 15,000) paid for the test along with Ultrasound scanning machine, two two-wheelers and three cell phones from the accused.
The police have also booked the hospital MD and two doctors under Section 420 (cheating and dishonesty) a non-bailable offence, section 406 (criminal breach of trust), section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). They have also been booked under section 23 of Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 for conducting the tests. The offence, if convicted, can attract up to three to five years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000.
This the first case booked under the Rachakonda police commissionerate under the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 since 2018.
Dr Raghava Reddy, who conducted the test, had earlier faced arrest in 2018 by the Yacharam police for a similar offence under the Yacharam police station limits.
In 2018, three cases were registered against five MBBS doctors from multi-speciality hospitals at Uppal, Medipallu and Choutuppal. The doctors were disqualified from service.