BJP MLAs Prevent Arrest of Doctors Caught Doing Sex-Determination Test in Aligarh

Two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators allegedly did not let the police arrest a doctor couple at Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh who were reportedly caught doing illegal pre-natal sex determination test on a woman late on Tuesday night. The woman was a decoy sent by a cell of the Rajasthan government that looks for doctors carrying out illegal sex determination tests, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday.

Under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, determination of sex of foetus is illegal and carries a minimum penalty of three years imprisonment, with fine, besides deregistration by the Medical Council. The Act was brought in to prevent pervasive use of ultrasound technologies, mostly by unscrupulous doctors to determine sex of foetuses and abort them if found to be female.

The saffron party MLAs – Anil Parashar (who represents Kol constituency) and Sanjeev Raja (from Aligarh Cantonment constituency) – allegedly stopped Rajasthan officials from seizing the ultrasound machine. They reportedly left Kwarsi police station only after ensuring that the accused doctor couple was let go.

The PCPNDT team from Rajasthan had caught Dr Jayant Sharma and his wife conducting the sex determination test, which is illegal, in Jeevan Nursing Home run by them on Monday evening. Dr Sharma’s father was a top leader of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, the labour wing of the RSS.

As the local police reportedly brought the doctors with a seized ultrasound machine to the police station, the two MLAs too reached there. They sat till 2 am and made sure that the accused couple was let go. All this, according to the report, happened in presence of the district magistrate, SP (city) and city magistrate.

Aligarh District Magistrate Rishikesh Bhaskar Yashod confirmed the incident and told the English daily, “We apprised senior officers in the government regarding the local public representatives interfering in the legal matter. We tried to convince them to allow the legal procedure but they refused to listen.”

He said the doctor couple was “caught red-handed” performing the pre-natal sex determination test.

Naveen Jain who was part of the PCPNDT team told the publication that they could not complete their operation in Aligarh because of the “trouble” created by the MLAs. The team was led by a circle inspector of the police and the coordinator of the cell.

One of the MLAs, Prashar, denied the allegation saying that he along with legislator Raja had gone to the police station to ensure that the doctor couple is “not framed in false cases”. “The ultrasound machine and the digital video recorder (DVR) have already been sealed by the Rajasthan officials. They should first probe if the test was conducted. How could they arrest the doctor?” he asked.

“No such action had ever been initiated in Aligarh so far and we will not allow such thing to happen here. Now, only the court will decide the action,” Raja told the daily.