Former civil surgeon arrested in Kolhapur for alleged illegal abortion racket
Accused Arrested
Kolhapur: In a major crackdown on an alleged illegal abortion network, police in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district have arrested a former Civil Surgeon and senior health official accused of carrying out hundreds of terminations involving female foetuses over several years.
As per the news reports, the accused doctor was detained after police raided a private hospital on Kadamwadi Road in Karvir. During preliminary interrogation, he allegedly admitted to carrying out around 200 to 250 illegal abortions, police officials said.
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The operation was carried out on the directions of Kolhapur Superintendent of Police Nilotpal as part of a special drive against illegal prenatal sex determination and abortion networks. Additional Superintendent of Police Annasaheb Jadhav supervised the investigation.
Police said the investigation began after the arrest of an alleged intermediary during a separate raid, following which information about the doctor’s alleged involvement emerged.
According to police, the intermediary allegedly disclosed that a woman acted as an agent by referring pregnant women, who had reportedly discovered they were carrying female foetuses, to the doctor for abortions at the hospital.
Based on the information, Police Inspector Ravindra Kalamkar deployed a decoy patient to the hospital. Police alleged that the doctor admitted the patient without completing mandatory legal procedures, conducted an examination using a portable ultrasound machine, made preparations for an abortion, and administered abortion medication.
The police team subsequently raided the hospital and caught the doctor red-handed. A portable sonography machine, abortion medicines, and other medical equipment were seized from the premises.
The doctor had previously held several senior positions in the government health department. He served as Civil Surgeon in Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Raigad, and Beed districts, worked as Additional Superintendent at Mumbai’s St. George Hospital, and retired as an Assistant Director from Pune.
A case has been registered at Karvir Police Station under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act and the Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act. Police said that during the arrest process, the accused doctor’s health deteriorated and he was admitted to the CPR Hospital in Kolhapur for treatment, reports ETV Bharat.
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