Despite a crackdown on illegal abortions in Karnataka over the past few months, female foeticide is going on unabated. A recent police case booked in Mandya district, where a ‘D’ group employee and an ambulance driver of a State-run hospital were involved, is testimony to this. Shockingly, the racket was being run in the department’s staff quarters in Pandavapura.
While the Health Department has filed an FIR and dismissed the two staffers, who were hired on contract, Mandya police are on a massive manhunt for the people who are part of the illegal abortion racket run by government staffers.
Police conduct raid
In an incident that has belatedly come to light, based on a tip-off, a team of police along with Health Department officials on May 5 raided the residential quarters of ‘D’ group employee Ashwini R., 32, working as assistant in the labour ward in Pandavapura government sub-divisional hospital. The police found a woman, who was in the fourth month of pregnancy, in Ashwini’s residence. Ashwini, apparently, gave the woman (identified as Pushpalatha) five tablets used for medical termination of pregnancy. The woman had developed a stomach ache and was bleeding profusely when the raid was conducted, according to the FIR.
The woman, said to be from Mysuru, was shifted to the Pandavapura government sub-divisional hospital, but the foetus could not be saved. Based on the doctor’s advice, medical termination was carried out to save the woman from excessive bleeding.
The police sealed the residence of Ashwini and her husband, Anand M., working as ambulance driver in the same hospital. Sathyamma, 54, mother of Ashwini, and Girijamba, 48, relative of Ashwini who were helping her in the illegal abortions, have also been arrested. The medical equipment and surgical instruments found at Ashwini’s residence have been seized and she has been taken for further investigation. The police have arrested the patient’s husband Shivalinga Nayaka for allegedly forcing the illegal abortion along with nine others, who are part of the racket. The accused have been booked under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act and Karnataka Private Medical Establishment Act.
Task force
In December, the Bengaluru police unearthed a prenatal sex determination racket across Bengaluru, Mandya, and Mysuru districts. They arrested a doctor and his lab technician who allegedly performed around 900 illegal abortions in the last three years.
Following this, the State government had, in the first week of January, constituted a task force for PCPNDT Act implementation under the chairmanship of the Health and Family Welfare Commissioner. This followed Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao’s announcement on December 12, 2023, in the Legislative Council during the Belagavi session that the government will set up task forces at the State and district levels within a week to curb female foeticide. However, it had been delayed following surge in COVID-19 cases and shift of focus.
