The arrest of the doctor had become likely in wake of the evidence gathered by the team of the Health department in Thursday’s raid in the hospital. The Health department team had found Jasbir Kaur (32), 24-weeks pregnant woman from Rurka Khurd Gorayan, ready for an abortion.

While sources earlier said the team had strong evidence to prove that the woman was ‘in the position of abortion’, they later stated, “Preliminary reports suggest that the abortion had already been conducted on her”.

Dr Rina Sandhu, district family welfare officer, who was also one of the members of the raiding team, said, “As per the medical examination of the pregnant woman that was carried out by a panel of three doctors, it has been disclosed that the woman had some medicine injected into her body to remove the foetus. We have sent the sample of the dead foetus for a Histopathology test to a government lab and the report will come in a week.”

The nexus

In Punjab, it is a common practice to remove the foetus by injecting some medicine which kills it. The foetus is then eliminated.

“This practice, in fact, goes on unabated, not only in the city but in the entire state. Some doctors mostly inject Emcredyl, a banned drug, which is a kind of a dye, and then the dead foetus is expelled out in the next 24 to 78 hours,” said a senior functionary ofthe state IMA (Indian Medical Association).

He said that in most cases those who are perpetrators of this crime are former PCMS (Punjab Civil Medical Services) doctors as they have a well-knitted nexus with senior health officials who bribe them from time to time to keep the practice on.

THE PROFIT

An Ultrasound Scan costs anywhere between Rs 5,000 and 10,000.

What does the MTP Act say?

An authorised MTP centre can only terminate a pregnancy of 12 weeks in case of complications. For termination of pregnancy between 12 weeks and 20 weeks, the centre needs to seek permission from the appropriate district health authority backed with medical reasons given by at least two gynaecologists and tests from two ultrasound scan centres.

There are 113 registered MTP centres in Ludhiana district and 243 registered ultrasound scan centres. Only some major hospital’s MTP centres are allowed to carry out termination of pregnancy between 12 and 20 weeks, with permission from a civil surgeon’s office.

Punishment