MTP of 16-year-old in Telangana: Private hospital under scrutiny

Hyderabad: At a private hospital in Ibrahimpatnam an illegal termination of pregnancy of a 16-year-old girl took place, three persons who were involved in this have been arrested by the Nalgonda police.

As per a media report in the Times of India, the girl became pregnant after she was raped by a person from her village, who was identified as a truck driver. The arrested people are the truck driver, his father, and an aide from the village. The police have registered case against the three of them and the hospital management under various sections of the IPC and POCSO act. 

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The accused person took the girl to a private hospital and forced the illegal termination of her pregnancy with the help and support of his family members. 

The girl's family had filed a complaint following which the Nalgonda police registered a case against the accused and sent the accused trio to judicial remand. 

The mother of the survivor had lodged a complaint with the Marriguda police on May 5, which stated, "My 16-year-old eldest daughter was sexually exploited by a 25-year-old truck driver from our village and she became pregnant. When my daughter was six months into the pregnancy, the accused along with his family took her to a private hospital, where she was confined to a room and her pregnancy was medically terminated."

The police conducted a preliminary investigation in which they found that the accused forced the girl to swallow tablets to terminate the pregnancy. However, her health deteriorated on April 30 after which the accused, his father, and another villager took her to a private hospital in Ibrahimpatnam. 

The Marriguda sub-inspector (SI) Venkat Reddy told TOI, "The girl turned critical from heavy bleeding. Doctors at the hospital claimed they had to terminate the pregnancy to save the girl (on May 1)."

Following the complaint by the girl's mother, the police registered a case under Sections 417, 420, 312, 342, 376(2) (n) of the IPC, 5(l) r/w 6 of the POCSO Act against the truck driver, his father, their associate, and the hospital management. 

The SI said, "We arrested the main accused, his father, and the villager. We have written to the district medical and health officer about the alleged illegal termination of pregnancy at a private hospital. Health department officials inspected the hospital on Thursday."