Prenatal sex determination racket busted; 4 arrested

With the arrest of four persons, including a woman tout, a team of the Health Department, Sonepat, unearthed an interstate sex determination racket while conducting a raid at Dhampur in Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh (UP).

Dr Sumit Kaushik, PNDT Nodal officer, said that Civil Surgeon Dr Jayant Ahuja received a tip-off about the involvement of some youths of Sonepat in prenatal sex determination. He was informed that these youths charged a huge fee to get the test conducted in UP.

A team, led by Dr Sumit Kaushik, was formed and a decoy customer was prepared for it. The decoy contacted an agent, Vikas, for sex determination of the unborn child. The deal was finalised at Rs 72,000.

Vikas took the money from the decoy at a private hospital and he and his friend Ravinder took the decoy customer to Bijnor in UP and also took a woman agent, Sabisasi, with them from there and reached a house of Manoj, who was reportedly running an illegal ultrasound centre, at City Colony in Dhampur.

Manoj conducted an ultrasound of the woman and told her about the sex of the fetus. Immediately thereafter, the health team raided the centre and sealed an ultrasound machine and seized Rs 17,000 from Ravinder and Rs 500 from the woman agent.

The team also nabbed Manoj from the spot. The team called the Dhampur police at the spot.

Dr Sumit Kaushik further stated that it was being suspected that there might be a bigger game behind the racket and some doctors might also be involved.

The investigation of the matter was handed over to the Dhampur police, but the Sonepat PNDT team would also carry out an intensive probe, said Dr Kaushik.