A doctor in India is arrested for performing 900 illegal sex-selective abortions in three years. He aborts about 20 girls every month, probably because they are girls.
Dr. Chandan Ballal was arrested by Bengaluru Police, along with a receptionist, and Ballal’s assistant Nisar, the manager of the hospital where they performed the abortion. Another doctor, identified only as Tulasiram, was also arrested.
Local media reported that the police were tipped off to the plot when they caught Shivalinge Gowda and Nayan Kumar, two suspects carrying a pregnant woman. Under interrogation, they admitted that the group would arrange for the women to be taken to a jaggery unit – a place where sugar is refined in Asia – which was instead being used as an ultrasound centre. The ultrasound machine is meant to be used only with permission from the District Health Office (DHO) and police believe the machine came from an electronic goods repairer identified as Siddesh. It is believed to be a machine that was junked and then repaired by Siddesh, who allegedly evaded the police.
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“Users should register the machine. In this case, too, the machine should be registered as there is no other way to get it. But we have to investigate how it got to the gang. It will be clear only after Siddesh is arrested,” said the police. “The machine can only be junked by an authorized official. There is a high possibility that it was thrown away.”
The officials explained that Tulasiram’s mother was an abortionist, and he followed her lead, having abortions to earn money. A man, identified as TM Vereesh, was given a commission if he identified couples who were unhappy with the gender of their preborn child, and referred them to the gendercide ring.
Sex-selective abortions are incredibly common in Asia, and particularly in India and China, where they have had horrific consequences. Men outnumber women by about 70 million, and even though sex-selective abortion is illegal, it still happens; it is believed that at least 13.5 million girls were aborted in India between 1987-2016 alone.
“Families want a son at any cost. Any cost!” said a woman who was forced into sex-selective abortion. “If I die [today]my wife will marry again tomorrow morning, hoping that the next woman will give birth to a boy.”
The arrested suspects were charged under the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act and IPC Section 312 (causing miscarriage).
