Cuttack: A government doctor was caught red-handed while conducting prenatal sex determination test at his residence at Friends Colony in Odisha’s Cuttack city during a surprise raid by a team of the Health department on Friday.
According to sources, an ultrasound machine, abortion pills, a bag full of cash, and other equipment used for conducting the tests were seized while three touts and a pregnant woman present at the doctor’s residence were detained for interrogation.
Sub-collector and Additional District Magistrate Kamaljit Das told the media that a random search operation was conducted on Dr Punyashloka Das’ residence on the direction of the District Collector on Friday morning and the doctor was found conducting a sex determination test illegally. “We are interrogating the three persons who were present at his residence during the search operation,” he said.
According to Health Department officials, Das was caught twice earlier for the same offence. In May 2023, he was even suspended from duty on similar allegations and a case was filed against him.
He is currently posted at Deogarh district headquarters hospital.
Das, however, denied the allegations and termed it as a conspiracy against him. He told media that the allegations against him were false. “The cash that police have confiscated was from my wife’s purse and the ultrasound machine seized is an old machine, which was lying unused. The medicines seized are for cardiac patients and not abortion pills. Even the machine confiscated earlier was unused and was of my father,” he said.
It may be mentioned here that determining the sex of the foetus in India is a punishable offence under the Pre-Conception and pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC-PNDT) Act 1994 and as Amended in 2002.
