Daijiworld Media Network - Belagavi (SP)
Belagavi, Mar 8: In a joint operation conducted by the city police along with the police personnel from Miraj, Maharashtra, homeopath, Babasaheb Khidrapure, who has emerged as the prime suspect in the case of destruction of dozens of female foetuses over a period of time in spite of possessing no qualifications or legal sanctions to conduct abortions, was arrested from the city on the night of Monday March 6.
Maharashtra government had requested the state police to extend help to them in their investigation. The kingpin of the racket, who was taken into custody from his hideout here, was produced in the court upon which he was remanded to ten days judicial custody.
The illegal activity of sex determination and elimination of female foetuses was going on at Bharti Hospital in Mahishyala village in Maharashtra, which is located just seven kms away from Karnataka border since the last several years, it is gathered. However, it came to light after the recent death of a pregnant woman aged 26. The woman had two daughters and had got admitted into this hospital for abortion after she came to know that the third, yet to be born child too would be female, the police who investigated this death found out. The police, during further investigation, found 19 female foetuses having been buried on the banks of a stream near the hospital. They also gained access to records to prove that illegal sex determination tests and abortion by unqualified doctors was going on in this hospital since long.
By the time the police reached this conclusion, Dr Khidrapure, a qualified homeopathy doctor, who was conducting tests and abortions, had gone missing. In the meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party leader, Jayant Patil, said that sex determination and aborting of female foetuses has been going on not only in Sangli but also in Satara, Miraj, Kolhapur districts of Maharashtra and some border districts of Karnataka with the connivance of doctors, radiologists, sonography specialists, gynecologists, general surgeons and anesthetists.
After the opposition parties erupted in protest, Maharashtra government has promised to bring all the culprits involved with this illegal activity to book. The opposition has been demanding the scalps of state health minister, Deepak Sawant, and women and child welfare minister, Pankaja Munde. Condemning the heinous act of the doctor, Mahishyala village in Miraj taluk observed a day's bandh. A case under different sections of Indian Penal Code has been booked against the doctor.