Tamil Nadu: Quack along with aide arrested for carrying out illegal sex determination

Tirupathur: Two quacks have been arrested by the officials of the Directorate of Medical Services during a sting operation in Thirupathur on Wednesday for running an illegal sex determination centre in the district. 

The accused, identified as a 53-year-old quack who along with his accomplice, who is an AIADMK (a political party based in Tamil Nadu) worker, was arrested for running sex determination scan centres in Tamil Nadu's Tiruppathur district.

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The inspection was carried out on the basis of a tip-off the officials had received, reports The New Indian Express. The main accused reportedly received his training from a doctor and started performing scans on pregnant women on the basis of that.

Officials of the Directorate of Medical services said that he was using a portable scanning machine to run the illegal sex determination scan centres at various places of the district in the forest areas of Tirupathur.

 M Kamala Kannan, Superintendent, Directorate of Medical Services told TNIE, "He was doing the scanning in a small room near a motor pump set in the field. Around 10 pregnant women were waiting for scans."

According to the police, Sugumar and his accomplice and AIADMK worker, Vediyappan used to charge Rs 8,000 per fetus determination test and he used to scan around ten pregnant women per day in the remote areas, with him earning around Rs 80000 per day. 

Police and Medical service authority officials said that the women from Dharmapuri and Tiruvannamalai used to reach his scan centre for determining the sex of the child in the womb.

The Directorate of Medical Service authorities conducted a surprise inspection at the Kathirappati village, 8 km from Tirupathur where there is a lack of proper roads and heavy vehicles face difficulty in reaching the place. The officials from the Health Department in Chennai, Tirupathur Joint Director of Health Services, Government Hospital Chief Medical Officer and others were involved in the sting operation.

Tirupathur health authorities told IANS that the portable scanning machines are banned in the country and a proper investigation has to be conducted to find out the source from where he brought the machine. The Tirupathur Joint Director of Health Services, Dr Marimuthu said that they are still confused as to how the accused acquired the scanning machine.

Sources in the state police told IANS that Sugumar has been arrested earlier also, but after coming out of judicial custody, he began continuing with the same work but in a different place. As per the TNIE report, the accused have been involved in this activity for the past 20 years and in spite of being arrested multiple times, he always managed to escape. 

Sugumar was arrested on Thursday and produced before a judicial magistrate court and was remanded to judicial custody.

According to the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 2003, commonly known as the PC PNDT act, it is illegal to determine the sex of an unborn child or use any sex selection technologies to determine the same. 

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