Female foeticide: Maha doctor nabbed in sting operation

A government medical officer was caught red-handed while allegedly conducting abortion at his private hospital in Kaij tehsil of Beed district in Maharashtra during a sting operation conducted by health officials and police on Sunday.

The doctor was arrested, police said.

Kaij sub-district hospital medical superintendent Dr Ashok Thorat told PTI that a woman came in Kaij sub-district hospital, who wanted an abortion of her over four-month old female foetus.

Thorat said he told the woman to go to a hospital in Ambajogai for termination of pregnancy, but she said that she will go to the Akshata hospital, run by Kaij sub-district hospital's medical officer Dr Chandrakant Lamture in Shikshak colony area of Kaij, for the abortion.

The medical superintendent then sent a team of health and police officials after the woman to keep a watch on her movements and conduct a sting operation.

Lamture, who was not authorised to conduct medical termination of pregnancy, was caught red-handed, Thorat said.

Kaij police sub-inspector Haribhau Rathod said after the sting operation they seized some equipment from Lamture's hospital, used for abortion.

The foetus was seized from the hospital and sent for autopsy, Rathod said.

A case has been registered against the doctor under sections 312 (causing miscarriage), 316 (causing death of unborn child), 317 and 511 of IPC and under sections 3, 4 and 5 of Medical Termination of Pregnancies (MTP) Act, he said.

The woman, who already has a son and a daughter, has been admitted to Kaij sub-district hospital, police added.