Two arrested after raid on illegal sex determination centre near Mysuru

MYSURU: A case of foetal sex determination has come to light in Mysuru, with the owner of a private hospital, Shyamala, and her brother Govindaraju, being identified as the masterminds behind the operation.

The authorities have arrested Shivakumar from Bherya in Saligrama taluk and Harish from D Salundi village in Mysuru taluk. The middleman, Puttaraju, is still absconding.

According to the investigation, the accused would charge between Rs 25,000-35,000 for determining the sex of the foetus. They would bring a scanning machine from the hospital to a farmhouse near Bannur highway, where the sex determination would take place.

The District Health and Family Welfare Department raided the center and found four pregnant women undergoing sex determination tests. The authorities have registered a case under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC-PNDT) Act and taken some people into custody.

Mysuru District Health and Family Welfare Officer Kumaraswamy said, “We conducted a raid and arrested five people. We are investigating how long this centre has been operating and how many fetal sex determinations have been done here”.