UP: Repeat offender caught running illegal sex determination racket

Kurukshetra, Oct 17 (PTI) A Kurukshetra Health Department team busted a gang allegedly involved in illegal sex determination tests, officials said on Friday.

The prime accused, Sonu, has been arrested several times in the past for running similar rackets, but he resumed his unlawful activities soon after being released, officials added.

According to Deputy Civil Surgeon Dr Gaurav Garg, in charge of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Cell, Sonu, who hails from Ambala, was operating a well-organised network for conducting illegal gender determination tests across private hospitals and ultrasound centres.

Despite having been nabbed and booked five times in the past, he allegedly resumed the illegal practice after his release, officials mentioned.

Shahbad Station House Officer (SHO), Sushil Vats, stated that the four accused, including Sonu, who were nabbed on Thursday, were charged under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, and cheating (318 BNS) and produced before the local court, which sent them to judicial custody for 14 days.

The latest action was conducted jointly by the Kurukshetra Health Department and Shahabad police, who received a tip-off that Sonu had reactivated his old network.

Acting on the information, an operation was planned in which a pregnant woman was planted as a decoy patient. Subsequently, the team traced Sonu and his associates as they offered to conduct a sex determination test.

"Sonu has been involved in several such cases before. He is a habitual offender who exploits poor and unaware families for profit," Dr Garg said.

Investigations revealed that Sonu not only conducted illegal ultrasounds himself but also worked closely with middlemen operating in different hospitals. He had a vast network of agents and intermediaries in contact with each other for the past five to six years. These brokers would lure expecting couples by promising gender disclosure of the unborn child for a hefty sum, officials said.

In the recent operation, a woman from Delhi was used as the decoy, and the racket was busted red-handed during the transaction. Along with Sonu, some of his accomplices, including a woman broker and a hospital owner, have also been booked, police said. PTI COR SUN MPL MPL