By IANS
Gurgaon (Haryana) : Cashing in on widespread social rejection of the female child, a quack here has confessed to aborting over 250 female foetuses, adding he has lost count of the number of abortions he carried out over the last decade.
A.K. Singh was arrested Thursday after the police raided his Buala Nursing Home in Pataudi, close to this swank New Delhi suburb with its high-rises and glittering shopping malls, and discovered the foetuses dumped in a sewage tank.
"The accused has confessed that he has aborted more than 250 unborn female foetuses and has lost count of the total," said Ramphal Singh, the station house officer at Pataudi police station.
"He said he has been in this profession for 15 years and charged Rs.1,000-1,500 from each client. After aborting the foetuses, he used to dump the undeveloped body parts into the sewage tank," Ramphal Singh told IANS.
A.K. Singh's grim practice was roundly condemned by women's groups, but they said it had flourished only because of the low status of women in parts of India.
"It's shocking," said Annie Raja, general secretary Indian Federation of Indian Women.
"The Gurgaon case reflects our attitude towards women. Because of such activities the ratio of females to males has gone down drastically. These private clinics, with support from local administrations, are continuing to kill female fetuses," Raja told IANS.
She said the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act is yet to show its teeth and that the government needed to show urgency in its implementation in order to prevent such activity.
"The quack in Gurgaon should be given maximum punishment, so that no one dares to repeat it," Raja added.
According to data available with the health ministry, 333 cases have been registered so far in the country on such charges but there has been only one prosecution.
A.K. Singh told police he became familiar with abortions while working as an assistant in the Army Medical Corps. He resigned and opened a small clinic, equipped with necessary medical facilities, in 1994 at his residence, the police officer said.
"He opened the clinic some distance away from other houses, so as not to arouse any suspicion among neighbours, and continued killing unborn babies," Ramphal Singh added.
Knowing that sex determination tests are illegal, A.K. Singh even put up a board saying these were not carried out at his clinic.
Acting on a complaint by the local health department, police sent a decoy female customer and raided the clinic after the medical fraudster conducted a sex determination test.
Ramphal Singh said the forensic and investigation teams had recovered remains of eight foetuses, adding that search operations were on. "We have decided to dig up the whole area surrounding the hospital. It is very likely that more remains will be recovered."
Police have sent the foetuses and bones for forensic tests.
According to Additional Superintendent of Police Anil Dhawan, the accused had been fined in 1994 for practising as a medico with a bogus medical degree.
"Now a case has been registered against him under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including cheating, and the Medical Council Act," Dhawan said.
The clinic has been sealed.