Newborn dies in Jharkhand after quack severs genitals to prove himself right

Ranchi: An infant in Jharkhand’s Chatra district died after a local quack allegedly severed the baby’s genitals to prove his ‘sex determination test’ right.

The newborn’s mother, Gudia Debi, was admitted to Om Nursing Home in Jayprakash Nagar late on Tuesday night. According to a report in The Indian Express, quack Anuj Kumar, performed an ultrasound to inform her husband that they will have a girl child. The woman, however, delivered a boy.

Later, Kumar cut off the newborn’s genitals to prove himself right. The quack also claimed that the woman had given birth to a girl with deformities.

"The doctor accused in the case did not have any registration or licence under the PNDT (Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques) Act. He would scout for couples looking to know the gender of the foetus and get ultrasound done at the clinic of some of his associates. We have got the postmortem done. The allegations against the doctor that he got the genitals severed… are true," Chatra Civil Surgeon Dr S P Singh said in the report.

The quack is currently absconding. Police, on receiving a complaint from the couple, sealed the nursing home on Wednesday morning.