1st or 4th: Girl child is rejected due to deep rooted foeticide racket in ahmedabad; 5 arrested

AHMEDABAD: Be it the first or the fourth, the girl child continues to be rejected. This was the harsh reality exposed by Ahmedabad Rural Police after they busted a female foeticide racket involving home-based sex determination and illegal abortions.In one case, a woman aborted her first child solely because it was a girl. Another woman, a paramedic, chose abortion when she was pregnant with her third girl child. A 22-year-old woman, already a mother of four girls, terminated her fifth pregnancy after learning it was another girl.“This case shows that all these abortions were driven by negative attitudes toward the girl child,” said a senior officer of Ahmedabad Rural Police.

“Some of these women were professionals, others were housewives, but all acted under family pressure—especially from husbands and in-laws.”The police arrested nurse Hemlata Darji and radiologist Harshad Acharya, who allegedly conducted sex determination tests and abortions for Rs 15,000 on May 27. Police said Acharya performed tests at his Odhav clinic, while Darji carried out abortions at homes or a Bavla guesthouse.

“These were not random acts. This was a planned service. They selected clients carefully, mostly through referrals,” the officer said. “Clients didn’t even visit clinics. Blood samples were picked up by a lab courier, and abortions were done at home.”Officers said that the nurse was networked and if she met a woman in the past, she would offer her help in neutralising a female child.Police found 25 tests were conducted, of which eight foetuses were female.

Eight abortions were confirmed so far.Another police officer said that as many as five, including Acharya, Darji, a guest house owner, a woman who underwent abortion, and her sister-in-law, were arrested in the case under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act charges.