Sanjay Talpada, a labourer from Thasara village of Nadiad has gone on hunger strike for five days at the Dakor Government hospital, alleging that his wife Aruna is pregnant despite undergoing a tubectomy there.

Talpada, a father of two and the only breadwinner of the family, has threatened to be on hunger strike till he gets justice. His wife, who is four months' pregnant, had undergone the operation on November 11, 2007.

While Nadiad district health authorities agreed that Talpada's wife underwent Laproscopic Tube Ligation (TL) under the family planning programme, they said Talpada's wife could have conceived a few days before she was operated upon.

According to medical experts, it is possible for a pregnant woman to safely undergo a ligation even if a physician unknowingly operates upon her. And provided she has irregular menstrual cycles, it is possible for the physician to err, said Dr Pankaj Desai, gynaecologist from SSG Hospital, Vadodara.

Nadiad Chief District Health Officer (CDHO), Dr LJ Patel, said: "The surgeon asked Aruna to do a follow-up since he suspected she was pregnant. But there is a chance that she failed to do take his advice." Dr Patel, however, refused to reveal the identity of the surgeon.