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Foetuses 'flushed down toilet'
15/06/2007 13:04 - (SA)
New Delhi - Indian police have arrested a man posing as a doctor who allegedly carried out abortions of female foetuses in an affluent Delhi suburb and flushed them down the toilet, an official said on Friday.
The arrest was made in Gurgaon, which is part of a state with one of the country's worst gender ratios because of a traditional Indian preference for sons and the ongoing practice of female infanticide.
"We believe that he used to throw the bodies in a toilet and flush them. We found the bones in a septic tank attached to the toilet," family planning officer MD Sharma told AFP.
The man arrested, AK Singh, has already been in legal trouble for allegedly practising as a doctor on a fake degree and for operating an ultrasound machine - which can check the sex of a foetus - without permission.
Police said they had found the remains of aborted babies in the septic tank attached to Singh's illegal clinic near Gurgaon, an affluent town that is home to a number of top outsourcing and multinational companies.
Around 30 bones were found, police said. It was not known how many foetuses may have been aborted.
Singh faces several charges, including conducting illegal sex determination tests and conducting abortions.
"There is a minimum jail term of two years and maximum of seven years for illegal abortions," said Supreme Court lawyer Sanjay Parikh, an anti-abortion activist.
'They are only going after small fry...'
Conducting a sex determination test is a non-bailable offence, with a jail term of up to three years, and the onus is on the accused to prove innocence.
Singh has denied any wrongdoing, saying the bones came from a cremation ground.
"My nursing home was built on a cremation ground. So if officials discover more bones while digging, is it not my fault," Singh was quoted as saying by The Times of India newspaper.
Haryana state, where Gurgaon is located, has 820 girls for 1 000 boys under the age of six. This compares to a national average of 927, and the worldwide average of 1 050.
Girls in India are often considered a liability as parents need to put aside large sums for marriage dowries. Tradition also demands that couples produce at least one boy to continue the family name.
Because of the heavily-skewed gender ratio, India has had strict laws against sex determination tests since 1994, with the first conviction last year.
Activists say authorities were only cracking down on smaller practitioners as they were easier to catch.
"They are only going after small fry, even though the qualified doctors are very well organised in carrying out sex determination tests," said Sabu George, a prominent anti-abortion campaigner.
A study last year by the British medical journal The Lancet said India may have lost 10 million unborn girls in the past 20 years, but Indian experts have challenged the number, saying it's likely closer to five million.
- AFP
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