The court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kurukshetra, has sentenced four persons, including a doctor, a tout and a couple, under the PC and PNDT Act for determining the sex of a foetus.
The court has sentenced Dr Kaushal Kumar of Uttar Pradesh and Sandeep Kumar of Ladwa to three years’ RI each and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each on them under the PC and PNDT Act. They were further sentenced to six months’ RI under Section 120B of the IPC. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 each on them. The court has also sentenced Rekha and Rinku, a couple from Karnal, for getting the test done, to one year’s RI and imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 each on them. The couple has five girls.
Four other accused — Dharambir, Kuldeep, Ram Chander and Deepak — in the case were acquitted due to lack of evidence.
As per the information, in May 2016, following a tip-off regarding some persons involved in the sex determination test racket, a team of the Health Department, Kurukshetra, arranged a decoy patient and a contact was established with a tout. A deal was fixed for Rs 18,000 for the test. The tout had asked the decoy to reach Ladwa. On May 29, the decoy reached Ladwa, where another pregnant woman along with her family members was waiting. The other woman was Rekha, and her husband Rinku was with her. Driver Sandeep took them to the clinic of Dr Kaushal in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh.
On their return, Sandeep, Rekha and Rinku were arrested. To nab the doctor, another operation was launched, and after the doctor conducted the test, he was nabbed by the raiding party.
The court, in its judgment, mentioned that the act of prenatal sex determination was the first step towards female foeticide, resulting in the silent extermination of countless unborn girl children. Such practice perpetuates a discriminatory mindset that treats daughters as less worthy than sons and thereby contributes to the alarming decline in the female sex ratio.
