In a major success for ongoing campaign against prenatal gender determination tests in Maharashtra, a Pune court on Tuesday sentenced a leading doctor to three years’ rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 for carrying out illegal fetal sex determination tests.

Pune’s First Class Judicial Magistrate  (Mrs). Vishakha B. Patil found the accused  (Dr.) Neena Anil Mathrani guilty under various sections of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, and its subsequent amendments.

“The accused shall undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years each for the offences punishable under section 23 of PCPNDT Act for the breach of all the relevant sections and rules,” the Judge ruled.

The Judge also said that the convicted doctor would undergo simple imprisonment for three months in the event of her failure to pay the fine of Rs 10,000 imposed on her.

The Prosecution’s case was the convicted doctor’s crime came to light after a few NFOs, including Janwadi Mahila Sangathan, took up the issue with the Pune Municipal Corporation way back in 2011. 

Giving the details of the case,  (Dr) Vaishali Jadhav, PMC’s Assistant Medical Officer of Health said: “Following the 2011 Census when a significant drop in the sex ratio was noticed, the Maharashtra Government decided to deal with the issue on a top priority. Our PMC and state government health officials, along with some NGOs, carried out a successful sting operation on two prominent doctors — gynaecologist (Dr.) Makarand Ranade of Sadashiv Peth, and radiologist-cum-sonologist (Dr.) Neena A. Mathrani of the Laxmi Road in Pune.”

Dr Neena Mathrani and Dr Ranade were arrested after they were caught red-handed while carrying out the gender determination tests banned under the stringent PCPNDT Act and were arrested. Their clinics and a sonography machine allegedly used in Mathrani’s clinics, were sealed by the police.

Subsequently, two separate cases were filed against the two doctors and they were booked under several sections of the PCPNDT Act.

During the trial that followed, one of the two accused Dr. Ranade died and his name was dropped from the case.

Welcoming the judgement,    They were trapped red-handed carrying out the tests banned under the stringent PCPNDT laws and were arrested. Their clinics and a sonography machine allegedly used in Mathrani’s clinics, were sealed by police.

Welcoming the judgement, Dr. Ganesh Rakh – who had launched Save the Girl Child’ campaign in January 2012 – said that the verdict would prove to be a major deterrent” to  doctors and gynaecologists indulging in illegal sex determination tests across the country.

“We have for long been urging doctors across the country to come forward and commit themselves to saving the girl child. If that happens, the growing demand for illegal sex-determination tests will come down,” Rakh said.

It may be recalled that several illegal abortions and female female foeticides had been reported from Beed district in Maharashtra in 2012.

Four months after a major crackdown on the doctors indulging in illegal abortions and female foeticides in Beed district, the police had filed a charge-sheet against 17 persons, including a notorious doctor-couple, in a Parli tehsil court on September 12, 2012.

Among the charge-sheeted were Dr Sudam Munde and his doctor-wife Saraswati, who had earlier been booked under the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act and sections 304 A and 201 of the IPC (causing death by negligence, destroying evidence and providing false information).

The others, who were charge-sheeted in the case included: the doctor couple's son Venkatesh, Jalgaon-based doctor Rahul Kolhe, husband of the deceased woman Mahadev Shankar Patekar and members of Mundes’ hospital staff.

Dr Sundam Munde and his wife Saraswati had earned notoriety, after they had disappeared from Parli town in Beed district on May 20, 2012, two days after a 28-year-old housewife Vijayamala Patekar, had died while undergoing abortion in their clinic.

A mother of four daughters, Vjayamala --during the initial months of her pregnancy-- found out through a sex determination test that she was carrying a female foetus. She died during the abortion in Mundes' clinic. The post-mortem conducted on the deceased housewife, Vijayamala later revealed that she was carrying a female foetus aged between 16 and 20 weeks. 

Following unearthing of illegal abortions and female foeticides’ racket, the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) had suspended the registrations of 13 doctors, including Mundes, who had been booked under PCPNDT Act and Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act for allegedly carrying illegal sex determination tests and abortions.