5 booked for running sex determination racket

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The city police arrested four persons allegedly involved in running a racket to help determine the sex of the foetuses. Efforts are on to nab another accused in the case.

According to Byappanahalli police, a random vehicle check led them to bust the racket and arrested the accused. The accused were identified as Shivalingegowda, Nayan Kumar, Veeresh and Siddesh.

The accused were said to be active in Bengaluru, Mandya and Mysuru where they used to determine the sex of a fetus during a scan and abort the female fetus.

A doctor who is said to be involved in the case, is currently on the run. Investigations revealed that the accused were running the racket for several years at the behest of Veeresh’s uncle, who is a doctor in Bengaluru operating a clinic on Old Madras Road.

The accused were working as agents to ferry pregnant women to a scanning centre in Mandya to get the test done and bring them back with the result.

Based on their consent, the doctor would also help terminate the pregnancy if it was a female foetus, a police officer said.

The police noticed a car which sped despite the road near NGF Signal being barricaded. Suspecting something fishy, the policemen chased the car and intercepted it.

During thorough questioning, the police found that the two accused in the car were taking a pregnant woman for an abortion after finding the sex of the fetus.

Later the police arrested four people in the case and have launched a manhunt for another. The police have booked the five accused under the Prohibition of Sex Selection Act and under IPC section 511 (Attempts to commit offences which is punishable with any imprisonment) and 312 (Whoever voluntarily causes a woman with child to miscarry).

The police are questioning the accused and are checking details of women who had their fetuses aborted through them.