Doctor and broker arrested in Meerut prenatal sex-determination raid

A joint team of the Gurgaon and Meerut health departments busted an illegal cross-border prenatal sex-determination racket on Thursday at the Care Diagnostic Center on Tehsil Road in Sardhana, Meerut. A doctor and a broker were arrested following a coordinated decoy operation targeting the interstate syndicate.

The operation was led by Gurgaon's Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) nodal cell, headed by Dr. Devender Singh Solanki. The crackdown was initiated after Gurgaon Civil Surgeon Dr. Lokveer Singh received intelligence that a broker named Nadeem was transporting pregnant women to Meerut for illicit sex-determination tests.

According to officials, Nadeem charged between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 per test and facilitated illegal abortions if a female foetus was detected. To bust the racket, Dr. Solanki and Medical Officer Dr. Harish Kumar set up a trap using a pregnant woman from Faridabad as a decoy.

On Thursday, the decoy met Nadeem at the diagnostic centre and negotiated a fee of Rs 15,000. After accepting the marked currency, Nadeem bypassed all legally mandated paperwork and took the woman to an ultrasound room. Inside, a doctor identified as Dr. Krishan Kabir conducted the scan using an unregistered machine and declared the foetus to be male.

Upon receiving a signal from the decoy, the joint health team raided the facility. They recovered Rs 14,500 of the marked currency hidden under a sheet on the examination table. Nadeem admitted to paying Rs 500 of the fee to a doctor at RN Hospital for a fraudulent referral slip.

Subsequent verification revealed that Dr. Kabir possessed only an MBBS degree and was not qualified to perform diagnostic ultrasounds. Furthermore, the facility's management had notified the Meerut Chief Medical Officer on June 5 that the centre was completely shut down. Neither the doctor nor the ultrasound machine was registered under the PCPNDT Act.

The enforcement action faced disruption when an individual named Chandrashekhar Singh arrived with a group of supporters, obstructed the health team, and fled with one of the primary suspects, Yogesh, who claimed to be the facility's owner. Both Yogesh and Chandrashekhar remain at large.

The team successfully handed over Nadeem and Dr. Kabir to the Sardhana Police. An FIR was registered on Thursday evening at the Sardhana police station charging the accused with criminal conspiracy, obstructing public servants, cheating, and violations of the PCPNDT Act and the National Medical Commission Act. The registered medical practitioner of the centre, Dr. Shaila Rahman, and associate Dr. M Chandra were also named in the FIR.