CID names 3 doctors, 16 others in final report on Karnataka female foeticide racket

Bengaluru: After three months of rigorous investigation into the illegal sex determination-cum-foeticide racket, the Central Investigation Department (CID) has filed a final report, naming 19 suspects, including three doctors.

The agency believes the lynchpin was a 54-year-old Ayurvedic doctor named Mallikarjuna Swamy, who procured four portable scanning machines from a licensed dealer in Mangaluru without submitting the necessary documents. He was believed to be the common link between medical staff and touts. The CID arrested him in December 2023 but a court later released him on bail. He died two weeks ago due to poor health.

The CID has seized all four portable scanning machines. Eighteen suspects were arrested but released on bail. One suspect is still at large.

Eleven suspects acted as touts and spread the word about sex determination in the villages, especially in the Old Mysuru region.

The CID has submitted the report to the health department because it doesn't have the power to file a charge sheet in the case. The CID probe has identified loopholes in the Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act. The agency is now preparing an advisory to plug them.

The racket was busted on October 15, 2023, by Bengaluru's Baiyappanahalli police, who intercepted a car moving suspiciously. Two men and a woman were travelling by it.

Police detained them for questioning and unearthed the racket. Police subsequently raided a jaggery-making unit in Mandya that doubled up as an ultrasound scan centre. Police went on to arrest 12 more people, including two doctors named Dr Chandan Ballal, 42, and Dr Tulasiram, 41.

The racket originated in 2020 with Dr Swamy approaching Lakshman Gowda M, a Mangaluru-based licensed vendor selling ultrasound scanning machines. Showing his Ayurvedic credentials, Dr Swamy bought a portable machine from him but didn't submit the necessary documents. The PCPNDT Act stipulates that only a medical doctor can buy an ultrasound scanning machine by submitting the required documents, and use it in a hospital set-up.

Gowda didn't insist on the documents because he desperately needed money. He told the investigators that Swamy had claimed he had all the documents. Gowda sold Swamy three more machines without documents.

The first machine that Gowda sold to Swamy was a used one. The second was broken. Gowda got both machines replaced by licensed dealers from Kerala. The CID plans to use the dealers as witnesses.

Swamy gave two machines to Siddesh, his cousin, who teamed up with a few others and started performing illegal sex determination. Shiva Nanjegowda, 50, a lab technician from Mysuru, got another machine from Swamy and gave it to a friend, who runs a hospital in Channarayapatna.

The touts performed sex determination two days per month in makeshift labs in villages near Mandya. Parents eager to know the sex of the foetus would spread the message through word of mouth. Customers were called to a place in Bengaluru on a specific date.

From Bengaluru, the touts would take them to Mandya for sex determination, which cost Rs 10,000. If parents wished to get the foetus — mostly female — aborted, they were referred to two hospitals in Mysuru — Matha Hospital and Ayurvedic Daycare Centre.

Dr Ballal, who got a machine from Swamy, performed abortions in both hospitals, assisted by his wife Meena C M and nurses Manjula and Usharani L. Matha Hospital was owned by Dr Tulasiram. Rizma Khanum, a receptionist at Matha Hospital, spread the word about abortion and solicited customers. Dr Ballal charged Rs 10,000 per abortion and paid Siddesh and his team a 20 per cent commission.

The CID believes the gang performed 600-900 abortions between 2020 and 2023.

Baiyappanahalli police seized two machines — one from the jaggery-making unit and the second from the ayurvedic hospital. The CID confiscated two more machines — one from a hospital in Channarayapatna and another from a Mandya house.

The 19 suspects

Doctors: Dr Chandan Ballal, 42; Dr Tulasiram , 41; Dr Mallikarjun Swamy, 54

Lab technicians: Shiva Nanjegowda, 50; Nisar Ahmed, 25

Nurses: Manjula K, 23; Usharani L, 35

Scanning machine vendor: Lakshman Gowda M, 40

Touts: Nayan Kumar, 36; Veeresh TM, 35; Sunanda; Siddesh R; Naveen Kumar, 43; Meena CM, 38; Rizma Khanum, 38; Puttaraju S, 38; Dhananjaya Gowda, 55; A L Satya, 58; Abhishek Gowda V, 27