Mumbai: Illegal Abortion Case

An MBBS doctor and two nurses attached to a private hospital were arrested for alleged connection with a case of illegal abortion, an official said on Thursday. Apart from the detention of the healthcare professionals, 11 skulls and 54 bones of foetuses were also recovered from hospital premises in Maharashtra's Wardha.

Acting on a tip-off, the police searched a biogas plant located in the premises of Kadam Hospital in Arvi tehsil on Wednesday and found 11 skulls and 54 bones of foetuses, which have been sent for laboratory examination, the official told PTI.

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A probe was underway to ascertain if the recovered bones and skulls were disposed of legally or illegally, he said. The police had earlier arrested the MBBS doctor, and a nurse of the hospital for allegedly performing an illegal abortion on a 13-year-old girl, inspector Bhanudas Pidurkar of the Arvi police station said.

Based on a complaint, the police arrested the doctor and the nurse on January 9 and also nabbed the parents of a minor boy who allegedly impregnated the girl with whom he was in a relationship, he added. The girl, who was five months pregnant, has been shifted to another hospital, and is reported to be in a stable condition.

As per the officials, the boy's parents had threatened the victim's parents that they would defame the girl if she did not undergo an abortion, and they paid for the procedure last week. The abortion was performed on January 7 at the hospital by the accused doctor and nurses, who allegedly helped the former to dispose of the foetus.

On January 9, a complaint of illegal abortion was lodged by the girl's mother, following which the accused were arrested under relevant sections of the IPC and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, he said.

According to the police, the doctor is reported to have taken a bribe of Rs 30,000 for the abortion, following which the foetus was buried inside the compound of the hospital. A panchnama was performed at the hospital on January 12, after which the arrests took place.

In the complaint, the woman had stated that her daughter was raped by a 17-year-old boy, whose parents allegedly threatened to kill the family if the news went out. According to the police, the doctor had failed to inform the authorities about performing an abortion on a girl under the age of 18. Wardha Superintendent of Police Prashant Holkar told PTI that the accused doctor's parents-in-law, who are also physicians, have a license to perform abortions.

Bhanudas Pidurkar, Senior Inspector of Arvi police station told The Indian Express, "The 17-year-old boy has been sent to a juvenile home and his parents have been arrested for threatening the victim's mother. The hospital authorities, as per law, should have informed us when the girl was taken to the hospital for abortion. All the accused are in judicial custody."

An officer further added, "Human remains have been seized from the hospital premises and sent for a postmortem and forensic analysis. A sonography machine has also been seized and a probe is on to find out if such abortions had taken place earlier as well."

A probe is underway to ascertain if the bones and skulls recovered from the biogas plant were disposed of legally or illegally, he said, adding that the doctor has not produced any documents in this regard. The police also stated that the DNA of all skulls and bones would be done.

As per a media report in the India Today, this, however, is not the first case of illegal abortion reported from the hospital. The police confiscated the hospital register, which contained information about all the abortions that took place in the last eight months.

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