MUMBAI: The prime accused in the female foeticide racket in Sangli district of Maharashtra Dr Babasaheb Khidrapure and his wife late Monday night by Mumbai Police in Belagavi, Karnataka, Police told www.policenewsplus here on Tuesday. Police said, a homeopath practitioner Khidrapure, who ran a well-equipped hospital at Mhaisal near Miraj in Sangli district bordering Karnataka, is alleged to have been running a female foeticide racket. The death of a 26-year-old woman, Swati Jamdade’s due to illegal abortion operation, on February 28 that helped the Police to break the illegal abortion racket. Police said, the woman had gone to Dr Khidrapure’s hospital as it had facilities for sonography. The doctor allegedly performed a sex-determination test on the foetus and revealed to the parents that it was female, during the checkup, following which Swati’s husband Pravin Jamdade wanted to get the foetus aborted. After the operation Swati died on the operating table. Swati’s relatives demanded a post-mortem and took the body to the Sangli Civil Hospital suspecting some foul play to have occurred. Miraj Police booked Pravin and some of his family members after this. Pravin revealed that Swati died during the abortion, Police investigation said after which a case was registered against Dr Khidrapure. Dr Khidrapure ran away from the village after getting to know that he might be arrested. The hospital was raided by the Police who recovered documents allegedly indicating illegal abortions that were rampant in Dr Khidrapore’s hospital. Khidrapure would bury the remains of aborted foetuses in the open ground adjacent to his hospital, Police said. The remains of 19 infants buried there were recovered by the Police. Many foetuses stuffed into blue plastic bags were thrown carelessly around along with animal waste and sewage. Forty bags of skeletons, umbilical cords and other remains were recovered, police said. The doctors assisting the police said, foetuses less than two months old were destroyed in toilets using acid, while the older foetuses were buried. Entries of patients on whom medical termination of pregnancy was performed at the hospital were found by Police. “Dr Khidrapure ran a well-oiled illegal abortion racket in the area, preliminary investigations reveal. Mr. Dattatray Shinde, Sangli Superintendent of Police said, there are possibilities of thousands of such abortions having been performed in that hospital and many patients from Karnataka and AP visited Khudrapure’s hospital”. ]]>
