Diaries reveal names of 20 touts, 2 nurses

Parveen Arora & Manish Sirhindi

Tribune News Service

Karnal/Ambala, July 6

The diaries and writing pads recovered from the hospital of former MLA Dr Ashok Kashyap in Indri by the Health Department of Ambala and Karnal yesterday have revealed names of 20 touts and two staff nurses, who have been bringing pregnant women to the hospital for gender tests since 2013.

The police said further investigations in the case brought to light that the touts and the staff nurses received kickbacks for ‘referring’ pregnant women to Dr Kashyap’s hospital, the details of which were found in two diaries.

Ambala Civil Surgeon said the diaries recovered by the raiding team carried over 75 entries in the names of 20 touts and two staff nurses. The diaries were sealed and handed over to the police.

Kurukshetra SP Simardeep Singh, who is holding the additional charge of Karnal, said the police had registered two separate FIRs — one against former MLA Ashok Kashyap, Sukhbir of Kathlahedi Shahabad, Pooja, the receptionist of the hospital, and Naresh, another tout, under various Sections of PNDT Act. Varun, who runs a chemist shop on the hospital premises, has also been booked. Naresh is absconding.

During the raid, the health team also recovered bags of torn F-form, which are required to be filled before performing ultrasound. Five F-forms filled recently were also recovered.

The Ambala Civil Surgeon said it indicated that documents were being filled and later torn to cover up the fact that illegal tests were being conducted at the hospital.

Dr Rajinder Kumar, Deputy Civil Surgeon (family planning), said these forms were required to be submitted with the authorities each month. The team had also recovered four phones, which were handed them over to the police, he said.

The MLA’s hospital was on the radar of the Karnal Health Department for few years as the authorities had been getting information about his involvement in sex-determination tests. They had tried around 10 times earlier with decoys also, but could not get success.

Ex-MLA on one-day police remand 

Karnal: Former MLA Ashok Kashyap, tout Sukhbir, hospital employee Pooja and operator of a chemist shop Varun were produced in court at Indri on Monday. Dr Kashyap and Sukhbir were sent to a one-day police remand, while the other two were sent to the judicial custody, said Kushal Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Indri. He said they had to know the whereabouts of the fifth accused- Naresh. The DSP said there was a possibility of involvement of more people in the racket. — TNS

Vij asks INLD to act 

Health and Sports Minister Anil Vij said in Ambala that the INLD should take a strong note of the incident and act accordingly. He said it was unfortunate that a former MLA had been caught conducting gender tests.