Doctor who performed abortions held

Mumbai: Homeopathic doctor Babasaheb Khidrapure (35), who allegedly illegally aborted female foetuses, 19 of which were found on Sunday near his privately run ‘Bharati Hospital’ in Sangli, was arrested on Tuesday from Belgaum by the Sangli police.

He was produced in a local court on Tuesday and remanded in police custody till March 17.

Three months ago, Khidrapure was felicitated by the local civic body for his work as a ‘doctor for poor patients’, according to zilla parishad member Raju Mali. According to police sources, Khidrapure was administering prenatal sex determination tests and carrying out unlawful abortions at his clinic for the past five years.

The abortions were carried out at Bharati Hospita

The probe against the doctor began after the death of pregnant woman, Swati Jamdade (26), at his hospital last week while undergoing abortion. Acting on a complaint from the deceased woman’s father, Sunil Jadhav, the police began its probe, arresting her husband, and the doctor on Monday at 4 am. Police said he destroyed the sonography machine and his abortion kits.

Expressing shock over Khidrapure’s illegal activities, Mr Mali said, “ He was felicitated for helping poor patients. In his acceptance speech he mentioned that he was against female infanticide.”

Sangli deputy superintendent of police Dhiral Patil, while talking to The Asian Age, confirmed Khidrapure’s arrest and said, “On receiving a tip off we came to know he was hiding in Belgaum. During a probe we discovered his sonography machines and operation kits, which were hidden at the rear of a farm.”

Eight-week-old foetuses were destroyed with acid, while the older ones were buried in the farm at the rear of the hospital. The hospital is around 7 km from the Karnataka border, and has two hidden basement rooms where pregnancies were terminated in advanced stages. At one end of the room is a fridge stocked with abortion drugs. There is an opening that led out of the building to a drain where blue plastic bags, half-destroyed medicine bottles and charred bio-medical waste was found, the police said.

“An initial stage of investigations indicated Khidrapure ran a well-oiled illegal abortion racket in the area, from which he made a decent amount of money. He was charging Rs 25,000 for pre-natal tests, and Rs 40,000 and Rs 10,000 for illegal abortion and medicines respectively,” said Mr Patil. “There is a possibility that thousands abortions been performed in the hospital on patients from Bijapur, Miraj and Shirawal,” he added. Neither is the hospital registered under the Nursing Home Act, nor are homoeopaths allowed to carry out abortions under Medical Council of India (MCI) guidelines.