Beed's doctor couple accused of rampant female foeticide arrested

A doctor couple accused of conducting numerous gender-based illegal abortions in Maharashtra’s Beed district surrendered to the police yesterday and are expected to be produced in a court today. Dr Sudam and Saraswati Munde, who are accused of conducting abortions on women who wanted to abort girl children, surrendered to the police last night and are expected to be produced before a court in Parali area, the Times of India reported. [caption id=“attachment_347170” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Representantional image. AFP”] [/caption]The doctors are accused of resulting in the death of a pregnant woman who was undergoing an abortion in their hospital on 18 May. The victim, Vijaymala Pattekar, had undergone the abortion after conducting a sex determination test illegally. It was her sixth pregnancy. Initially the doctor duo were booked under bailable sections of the Indian Penal Code and were granted bail. When they were later booked under more stringent sections of law the Mundes fled, the Hindustan Times reported. Another Jalgaon-based doctor, accused of conducting illegal sex determination tests on patients who were sent to him by the Mundes, has already been arrested and is in police custody. Munde would send his patients to Jalgaon-based Dr Rahul Kolhe for sex determination tests, police said. Police officials said that the sex determination test of the foetus of Vijaymala Patekar was conducted at Kolhe’s hospital in Jalgaon.